VacationSelector
The coastline of the Hotel Zone, Cancun
CancunThe coastline of the Hotel Zone
The Silver Pagoda, Phnom Penh
Phnom PenhThe Silver Pagoda

Photos: Cancun by Tellez Erik, Pexels License; Phnom Penh by Francisco Anzola, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Cancun 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 Cancun for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Phnom Penh for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • food and drink

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. Cancun 98, Phnom Penh 6: Cancun leads by 92 points.
Food & drink. Cancun 44, Phnom Penh 62: Phnom Penh leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Cancun 15, Phnom Penh 62: Phnom Penh leads by 47 points.
Nightlife. Cancun 70, Phnom Penh 58: Cancun leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cancun 66, Phnom Penh 28: Cancun leads by 38 points.
Day trips. Cancun 65, Phnom Penh 34: Cancun leads by 31 points.
Good for families. Cancun 78, Phnom Penh 32: Cancun leads by 46 points.
Getting around. Cancun 25, Phnom Penh 35: Phnom Penh leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Cancun 40, Phnom Penh 46: Phnom Penh leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Cancun 46, Phnom Penh 86: Phnom Penh leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cancun 17, Phnom Penh 32: Phnom Penh leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cancun 55, Phnom Penh 50: Cancun leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cancun and Phnom Penh.

Your match

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

Cancun
Best match
52match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Phnom Penh
44match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cancun in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
89 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Phnom Penh in July

33 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
168 mmrain in the month
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
CancunPhnom Penh

Where the figures come from

Cancun 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. Cancun: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Phnom Penh: 1991-2020 normals, Phnom-Penh / Pochentong (8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCancunPhnom Penh
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaKhmer
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Riel (KHR)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzACG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+7
Emergency number911Police 117, ambulance 119, fire 118
Elevation5 m11 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsTecho International Airport (KTI)23 km from centre41 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureCancunPhnom Penh
City population888,7972,129,371
People per km²-3,138
Museums within 10 km13
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

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

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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). 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.