VacationSelector
The Sagrada Família, Barcelona
BarcelonaThe Sagrada Família
Angkor Wat beyond the palms of the causeway, Siem Reap
Siem ReapAngkor Wat beyond the palms of the causeway

Photos: Barcelona by Canaan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Siem Reap by allPhoto Bangkok, Pexels License.

Barcelona or Siem Reap?

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 Barcelona for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • families

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

Choose Siem Reap for

  • prices
  • wellness
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Siem Reap’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. Barcelona 75, Siem Reap 5: Barcelona leads by 70 points.
Food & drink. Barcelona 82, Siem Reap 45: Barcelona leads by 37 points.
Culture & sights. Barcelona 86, Siem Reap 88: Siem Reap leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Barcelona 82, Siem Reap 42: Barcelona leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. Barcelona 72, Siem Reap 40: Barcelona leads by 32 points.
Day trips. Barcelona 80, Siem Reap 55: Barcelona leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Barcelona 76, Siem Reap 35: Barcelona leads by 41 points.
Getting around. Barcelona 80, Siem Reap 30: Barcelona leads by 50 points.
Shopping & style. Barcelona 75, Siem Reap 38: Barcelona leads by 37 points.
Affordability. Barcelona 44, Siem Reap 88: Siem Reap leads by 44 points.
Live music & performing arts. Barcelona 70, Siem Reap 32: Barcelona leads by 38 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Barcelona 38, Siem Reap 60: Siem Reap leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Barcelona and Siem Reap.

Your match

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

Barcelona
Best match
72match

Wins on beaches and getting around with your weighting.

Siem Reap
47match

Wins on prices and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Barcelona in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Siem Reap in July

30 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
197 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
BarcelonaSiem Reap

Where the figures come from

Siem Reap has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Barcelona: 1991-2020 normals, Barcelona / Aeropuerto (14.4 km from centre). Siem Reap: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureBarcelonaSiem Reap
Official languageSpanishKhmer
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Riel (KHR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzACG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number112Police 117, ambulance 119, fire 118
Elevation9 m18 m
Main airportJosep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN)13 km from centre235 non-stop destinationsSiem Reap-Angkor International Airport (SAI)39 km from centre14 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureBarcelonaSiem Reap
City population1,731,649147,866
People per km²17,094-
Museums within 10 km956
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Barcelona or Siem Reap 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.