VacationSelector
Lion's Head above Clifton Beach, Cape Town
Cape TownLion's Head above Clifton Beach
The Silver Pagoda, Phnom Penh
Phnom PenhThe Silver Pagoda

Photos: Cape Town by Stephan Louis, Pexels License; Phnom Penh by Francisco Anzola, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Cape Town 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 Cape Town for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • day trips

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

Choose Phnom Penh for

  • prices
  • wellness
  • culture and sights

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. Cape Town 58, Phnom Penh 6: Cape Town leads by 52 points.
Food & drink. Cape Town 72, Phnom Penh 62: Cape Town leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Cape Town 60, Phnom Penh 62: Phnom Penh leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Cape Town 60, Phnom Penh 58: Cape Town leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cape Town 98, Phnom Penh 28: Cape Town leads by 70 points.
Day trips. Cape Town 68, Phnom Penh 34: Cape Town leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Cape Town 58, Phnom Penh 32: Cape Town leads by 26 points.
Getting around. Cape Town and Phnom Penh are level on 35.
Shopping & style. Cape Town 50, Phnom Penh 46: Cape Town leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Cape Town 72, Phnom Penh 86: Phnom Penh leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cape Town 52, Phnom Penh 32: Cape Town leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cape Town 45, Phnom Penh 50: Phnom Penh leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cape Town and Phnom Penh.

Your match

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

Cape Town
Best match
61match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and beaches with your weighting.

Phnom Penh
44match

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.

Cape Town in July

18 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
89 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
15 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Phnom Penh in July

33 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
168 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

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Cape TownPhnom Penh

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cape Town: 1991-2020 normals, Cape Town Airport (17.5 km from centre). Phnom Penh: 1991-2020 normals, Phnom-Penh / Pochentong (8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCape TownPhnom Penh
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageKhmer
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Riel (KHR)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzACG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+7
Emergency number112Police 117, ambulance 119, fire 118
Elevation5 m11 m
Main airportCape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsTecho International Airport (KTI)23 km from centre41 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureCape TownPhnom Penh
City population3,776,3132,129,371
People per km²1,5383,138
Museums within 10 km223
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cape Town 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. 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. 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.