VacationSelector
Surfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach, Gold Coast
Gold CoastSurfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach
Angkor Wat beyond the palms of the causeway, Siem Reap
Siem ReapAngkor Wat beyond the palms of the causeway

Photos: Gold Coast by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Siem Reap by allPhoto Bangkok, Pexels License.

Gold Coast or Siem Reap?

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 Siem Reap for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Siem Reap’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, Siem Reap 5: Gold Coast leads by 87 points.
Food & drink. Gold Coast 47, Siem Reap 45: Gold Coast leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Gold Coast 15, Siem Reap 88: Siem Reap leads by 73 points.
Nightlife. Gold Coast 55, Siem Reap 42: Gold Coast leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Gold Coast 82, Siem Reap 40: Gold Coast leads by 42 points.
Day trips. Gold Coast 52, Siem Reap 55: Siem Reap leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Gold Coast 89, Siem Reap 35: Gold Coast leads by 54 points.
Getting around. Gold Coast 45, Siem Reap 30: Gold Coast leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Gold Coast 40, Siem Reap 38: Gold Coast leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Gold Coast 35, Siem Reap 88: Siem Reap leads by 53 points.
Live music & performing arts. Gold Coast 30, Siem Reap 32: Siem Reap leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Gold Coast 42, Siem Reap 60: Siem Reap leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Gold Coast and Siem Reap.

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.

Siem Reap
47match

Wins on culture and sights and prices 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

Siem Reap in July

30 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
197 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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Gold CoastSiem Reap

Where the figures come from

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

Siem Reap has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Gold Coast: 1991-2020 normals, Gold Coast Seaway (13 km from centre). Siem Reap: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureGold CoastSiem Reap
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 m18 m
Main airportGold Coast Airport (OOL)20 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsSiem Reap-Angkor International Airport (SAI)39 km from centre14 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureGold CoastSiem Reap
City population607,665147,866
People per km²433-
Museums within 10 km26
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 Siem Reap 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.