VacationSelector
Korenlei reflected in the Leie, Ghent
GhentKorenlei reflected in the Leie
The Silver Pagoda, Phnom Penh
Phnom PenhThe Silver Pagoda

Photos: Ghent by ykeiko, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Phnom Penh by Francisco Anzola, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Ghent 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 Ghent for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Phnom Penh for

  • prices
  • 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. Ghent 25, Phnom Penh 6: Ghent leads by 19 points.
Food & drink. Ghent and Phnom Penh are level on 62.
Culture & sights. Ghent 72, Phnom Penh 62: Ghent leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Ghent 55, Phnom Penh 58: Phnom Penh leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ghent 35, Phnom Penh 28: Ghent leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Ghent 88, Phnom Penh 34: Ghent leads by 54 points.
Good for families. Ghent 50, Phnom Penh 32: Ghent leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Ghent 78, Phnom Penh 35: Ghent leads by 43 points.
Shopping & style. Ghent 50, Phnom Penh 46: Ghent leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Ghent 38, Phnom Penh 86: Phnom Penh leads by 48 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ghent 60, Phnom Penh 32: Ghent leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ghent 33, Phnom Penh 50: Phnom Penh leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ghent and Phnom Penh.

Your match

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

Ghent
Best match
54match

Wins on day trips and getting around 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.

Ghent in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
77 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 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
GhentPhnom Penh

Where the figures come from

Ghent 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.

Ghent's sunshine is measured 45 km from the centre, at Vlissingen.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Ghent: 2009-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Melle / Kalverhaag (10.1 km from centre). Phnom Penh: 1991-2020 normals, Phnom-Penh / Pochentong (8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGhentPhnom Penh
Official languageFrench, German, DutchKhmer
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Riel (KHR)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzACG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number112Police 117, ambulance 119, fire 118
Elevation12 m11 m
Main airportBrussels Airport (BRU)56 km from centre191 non-stop destinationsTecho International Airport (KTI)23 km from centre41 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureGhentPhnom Penh
City population272,6572,129,371
People per km²1,7283,138
Museums within 10 km303
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km51
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Ghent or Phnom Penh somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.