VacationSelector
Lion's Head above Clifton Beach, Cape Town
Cape TownLion's Head above Clifton Beach
Angkor Wat beyond the palms of the causeway, Siem Reap
Siem ReapAngkor Wat beyond the palms of the causeway

Photos: Cape Town by Stephan Louis, Pexels License; Siem Reap by allPhoto Bangkok, Pexels License.

Cape Town 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 Cape Town for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • food and drink

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

Choose Siem Reap for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • wellness

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. Cape Town 58, Siem Reap 5: Cape Town leads by 53 points.
Food & drink. Cape Town 72, Siem Reap 45: Cape Town leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Cape Town 60, Siem Reap 88: Siem Reap leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Cape Town 60, Siem Reap 42: Cape Town leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cape Town 98, Siem Reap 40: Cape Town leads by 58 points.
Day trips. Cape Town 68, Siem Reap 55: Cape Town leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Cape Town 58, Siem Reap 35: Cape Town leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Cape Town 35, Siem Reap 30: Cape Town leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Cape Town 50, Siem Reap 38: Cape Town leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Cape Town 72, Siem Reap 88: Siem Reap leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cape Town 52, Siem Reap 32: Cape Town leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cape Town 45, Siem Reap 60: Siem Reap leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cape Town and Siem Reap.

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.

Siem Reap
47match

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.

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

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
Cape TownSiem 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. Cape Town: 1991-2020 normals, Cape Town Airport (17.5 km from centre). Siem Reap: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureCape TownSiem Reap
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 m18 m
Main airportCape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsSiem Reap-Angkor International Airport (SAI)39 km from centre14 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureCape TownSiem Reap
City population3,776,313147,866
People per km²1,538-
Museums within 10 km226
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 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). 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. 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.

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.