VacationSelector
Galena Street with the runs of Aspen Mountain, Aspen
AspenGalena Street with the runs of Aspen Mountain
The Silver Pagoda, Phnom Penh
Phnom PenhThe Silver Pagoda

Photos: Aspen by Moroder, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Phnom Penh by Francisco Anzola, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Aspen or Phnom Penh?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Aspen for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Aspen’s own page.

Choose Phnom Penh for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Phnom Penh’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Aspen and Phnom Penh are level on 6.
Food & drink. Aspen 45, Phnom Penh 62: Phnom Penh leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Aspen 22, Phnom Penh 62: Phnom Penh leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Aspen 40, Phnom Penh 58: Phnom Penh leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Aspen 95, Phnom Penh 28: Aspen leads by 67 points.
Day trips. Aspen 30, Phnom Penh 34: Phnom Penh leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Aspen 55, Phnom Penh 32: Aspen leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Aspen 72, Phnom Penh 35: Aspen leads by 37 points.
Shopping & style. Aspen 50, Phnom Penh 46: Aspen leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Aspen 5, Phnom Penh 86: Phnom Penh leads by 81 points.
Live music & performing arts. Aspen 50, Phnom Penh 32: Aspen leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Aspen and Phnom Penh are level on 50.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Aspen and Phnom Penh.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Aspen
43match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around with your weighting.

Phnom Penh
44match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Aspen in July

27 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
33 mmrain in the month
15 hdaylight a day

Phnom Penh in July

33 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
168 mmrain in the month
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
AspenPhnom Penh

Where the figures come from

Aspen has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Aspen: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Aspen / Woody Creek (5.2 km from centre). Phnom Penh: 1991-2020 normals, Phnom-Penh / Pochentong (8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAspenPhnom Penh
Official language-Khmer
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Riel (KHR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzACG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number911Police 117, ambulance 119, fire 118
Elevation2,405 m11 m
Main airportAspen-Pitkin County Airport (Sardy Field) (ASE)5 km from centre11 non-stop destinationsTecho International Airport (KTI)23 km from centre41 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureAspenPhnom Penh
City population7,0042,129,371
People per km²7003,138
Museums within 10 km23
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Aspen or Phnom Penh somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.