VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
The Silver Pagoda, Phnom Penh
Phnom PenhThe Silver Pagoda

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Phnom Penh by Francisco Anzola, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Charleston 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 Charleston for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • families

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

Choose Phnom Penh for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • wellness

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. Charleston 72, Phnom Penh 6: Charleston leads by 66 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Phnom Penh 62: Charleston leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Phnom Penh 62: Charleston leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Phnom Penh 58: Phnom Penh leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Phnom Penh 28: Charleston leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Phnom Penh 34: Charleston leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Phnom Penh 32: Charleston leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Phnom Penh 35: Charleston leads by 11 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Phnom Penh 46: Charleston leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Phnom Penh 86: Phnom Penh leads by 59 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Phnom Penh 32: Charleston leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, Phnom Penh 50: Phnom Penh leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Phnom Penh.

Your match

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

Charleston
Best match
53match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Phnom Penh
44match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Charleston in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
167 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
14 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
CharlestonPhnom Penh

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Phnom Penh: 1991-2020 normals, Phnom-Penh / Pochentong (8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonPhnom Penh
Official language-Khmer
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Riel (KHR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzACG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number911Police 117, ambulance 119, fire 118
Elevation6 m11 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsTecho International Airport (KTI)23 km from centre41 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonPhnom Penh
City population150,2272,129,371
People per km²5323,138
Museums within 10 km193
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months-

Where else could you go?

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