VacationSelector
Clearwater Beach in evening light, with its hotels and pier, Clearwater
ClearwaterClearwater Beach in evening light, with its hotels and pier
The Silver Pagoda, Phnom Penh
Phnom PenhThe Silver Pagoda

Photos: Clearwater by ajay_suresh, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Phnom Penh by Francisco Anzola, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Clearwater 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 Clearwater for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Phnom Penh for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • 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. Clearwater 90, Phnom Penh 6: Clearwater leads by 84 points.
Food & drink. Clearwater 38, Phnom Penh 62: Phnom Penh leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Clearwater 18, Phnom Penh 62: Phnom Penh leads by 44 points.
Nightlife. Clearwater 34, Phnom Penh 58: Phnom Penh leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Clearwater 55, Phnom Penh 28: Clearwater leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Clearwater 58, Phnom Penh 34: Clearwater leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Clearwater 78, Phnom Penh 32: Clearwater leads by 46 points.
Getting around. Clearwater 28, Phnom Penh 35: Phnom Penh leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Clearwater 27, Phnom Penh 46: Phnom Penh leads by 19 points.
Affordability. Clearwater 35, Phnom Penh 86: Phnom Penh leads by 51 points.
Live music & performing arts. Clearwater 36, Phnom Penh 32: Clearwater leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Clearwater 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: Clearwater and Phnom Penh.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Clearwater
45match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Phnom Penh
44match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Clearwater in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
188 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 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
ClearwaterPhnom Penh

Where the figures come from

Clearwater has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Clearwater's sunshine is measured 26 km from the centre, at Tampa International Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Clearwater: 2006-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Saint Petersburg / High Point (12.7 km from centre). Phnom Penh: 1991-2020 normals, Phnom-Penh / Pochentong (8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureClearwaterPhnom 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
Elevation9 m11 m
Main airportSt. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport (PIE)13 km from centre60 non-stop destinationsTecho International Airport (KTI)23 km from centre41 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureClearwaterPhnom Penh
City population117,2922,129,371
People per km²1,1543,138
Museums within 10 km43
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Clearwater 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.