VacationSelector
Surfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach, Gold Coast
Gold CoastSurfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach
The Silver Pagoda, Phnom Penh
Phnom PenhThe Silver Pagoda

Photos: Gold Coast by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Phnom Penh by Francisco Anzola, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Gold Coast 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 Gold Coast for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Gold Coast’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. Gold Coast 92, Phnom Penh 6: Gold Coast leads by 86 points.
Food & drink. Gold Coast 47, Phnom Penh 62: Phnom Penh leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Gold Coast 15, Phnom Penh 62: Phnom Penh leads by 47 points.
Nightlife. Gold Coast 55, Phnom Penh 58: Phnom Penh leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Gold Coast 82, Phnom Penh 28: Gold Coast leads by 54 points.
Day trips. Gold Coast 52, Phnom Penh 34: Gold Coast leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Gold Coast 89, Phnom Penh 32: Gold Coast leads by 57 points.
Getting around. Gold Coast 45, Phnom Penh 35: Gold Coast leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Gold Coast 40, Phnom Penh 46: Phnom Penh leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Gold Coast 35, Phnom Penh 86: Phnom Penh leads by 51 points.
Live music & performing arts. Gold Coast 30, Phnom Penh 32: Phnom Penh leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Gold Coast 42, Phnom Penh 50: Phnom Penh leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Gold Coast and Phnom Penh.

Your match

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

Gold Coast
Best match
52match

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.

Gold Coast in July

22 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
59 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
11 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
Gold CoastPhnom Penh

Where the figures come from

Gold Coast's sunshine is measured 75 km from the centre, at Brisbane Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Gold Coast: 1991-2020 normals, Gold Coast Seaway (13 km from centre). Phnom Penh: 1991-2020 normals, Phnom-Penh / Pochentong (8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGold CoastPhnom Penh
Official languageEnglishKhmer
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Riel (KHR)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzACG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10UTC+7
Emergency number000Police 117, ambulance 119, fire 118
Elevation12 m11 m
Main airportGold Coast Airport (OOL)20 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsTecho International Airport (KTI)23 km from centre41 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureGold CoastPhnom Penh
City population607,6652,129,371
People per km²4333,138
Museums within 10 km23
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 Gold Coast 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.