VacationSelector
Durban
The Silver Pagoda, Phnom Penh
Phnom PenhThe Silver Pagoda

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

Durban 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 Durban for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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

Choose Phnom Penh for

  • culture and sights
  • wellness
  • nightlife

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. Durban 80, Phnom Penh 6: Durban leads by 74 points.
Food & drink. Durban 60, Phnom Penh 62: Phnom Penh leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Durban 38, Phnom Penh 62: Phnom Penh leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Durban 40, Phnom Penh 58: Phnom Penh leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban 68, Phnom Penh 28: Durban leads by 40 points.
Day trips. Durban 38, Phnom Penh 34: Durban leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Durban 60, Phnom Penh 32: Durban leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Durban 20, Phnom Penh 35: Phnom Penh leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Durban 42, Phnom Penh 46: Phnom Penh leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Durban 72, Phnom Penh 86: Phnom Penh leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Durban 40, Phnom Penh 32: Durban leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban 30, Phnom Penh 50: Phnom Penh leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Durban and Phnom Penh.

Your match

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

Durban
Best match
49match

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

Phnom Penh
44match

Wins on culture and sights 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.

Durban in July

23 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
44 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
22 °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
DurbanPhnom Penh

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre). Phnom Penh: 1991-2020 normals, Phnom-Penh / Pochentong (8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDurbanPhnom 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
Elevation22 m11 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsTecho International Airport (KTI)23 km from centre41 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanPhnom Penh
City population595,0612,129,371
People per km²2,6343,138
Museums within 10 km13
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Durban 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.