VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
The Silver Pagoda, Phnom Penh
Phnom PenhThe Silver Pagoda

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Phnom Penh by Francisco Anzola, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Essaouira 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 Essaouira for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

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

Choose Phnom Penh for

  • nightlife
  • food and drink
  • day trips

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. Essaouira 47, Phnom Penh 6: Essaouira leads by 41 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Phnom Penh 62: Phnom Penh leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Phnom Penh 62: Phnom Penh leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Phnom Penh 58: Phnom Penh leads by 44 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Phnom Penh 28: Essaouira leads by 29 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Phnom Penh 34: Phnom Penh leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Phnom Penh 32: Essaouira leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Phnom Penh 35: Essaouira leads by 23 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Phnom Penh 46: Phnom Penh leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Phnom Penh 86: Phnom Penh leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Phnom Penh 32: Phnom Penh leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Phnom Penh 50: Essaouira leads by 16 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Essaouira 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

Essaouira
45match

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

Phnom Penh
44match

Wins on nightlife and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Essaouira in July

22 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
20 °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
EssaouiraPhnom Penh

Where the figures come from

Essaouira 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Essaouira: 1991-2020 normals, Essaouira (1.4 km from centre). Phnom Penh: 1991-2020 normals, Phnom-Penh / Pochentong (8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraPhnom Penh
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightKhmer
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Riel (KHR)
SocketsCE50 HzACG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC+7
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15Police 117, ambulance 119, fire 118
Elevation11 m11 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsTecho International Airport (KTI)23 km from centre41 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraPhnom Penh
City population82,9622,129,371
People per km²16,5923,138
Museums within 10 km23
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Essaouira 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). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.