VacationSelector
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens
The Silver Pagoda, Phnom Penh
Phnom PenhThe Silver Pagoda

Photos: Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Phnom Penh by Francisco Anzola, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Edinburgh 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 Edinburgh for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Phnom Penh for

  • prices
  • wellness
  • 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. Edinburgh 22, Phnom Penh 6: Edinburgh leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. Edinburgh 53, Phnom Penh 62: Phnom Penh leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Edinburgh 75, Phnom Penh 62: Edinburgh leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Edinburgh 50, Phnom Penh 58: Phnom Penh leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Edinburgh 75, Phnom Penh 28: Edinburgh leads by 47 points.
Day trips. Edinburgh 75, Phnom Penh 34: Edinburgh leads by 41 points.
Good for families. Edinburgh 62, Phnom Penh 32: Edinburgh leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Edinburgh 74, Phnom Penh 35: Edinburgh leads by 39 points.
Shopping & style. Edinburgh 50, Phnom Penh 46: Edinburgh leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Edinburgh 30, Phnom Penh 86: Phnom Penh leads by 56 points.
Live music & performing arts. Edinburgh 72, Phnom Penh 32: Edinburgh leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Edinburgh 34, Phnom Penh 50: Phnom Penh leads by 16 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Edinburgh and Phnom Penh.

Your match

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

Edinburgh
Best match
56match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and day trips 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.

Edinburgh in July

19 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
66 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
14 °Csea
17 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
EdinburghPhnom Penh

Where the figures come from

Edinburgh 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.

Edinburgh's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at Leuchars.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Edinburgh: 1991-2020 normals, Edinburgh Airport (10 km from centre). Phnom Penh: 1991-2020 normals, Phnom-Penh / Pochentong (8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEdinburghPhnom Penh
Official languageEnglishKhmer
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Riel (KHR)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzACG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number112 or 999Police 117, ambulance 119, fire 118
Elevation47 m11 m
Main airportEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinationsTecho International Airport (KTI)23 km from centre41 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureEdinburghPhnom Penh
City population488,0502,129,371
People per km²1,8843,138
Museums within 10 km323
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 Edinburgh 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.