VacationSelector
Main Beach with its palms and lifeguard tower, Laguna Beach
Laguna BeachMain Beach with its palms and lifeguard tower
The Silver Pagoda, Phnom Penh
Phnom PenhThe Silver Pagoda

Photos: Laguna Beach by Mark Stebnicki, Pexels License; Phnom Penh by Francisco Anzola, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Laguna Beach 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 Laguna Beach for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

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

Choose Phnom Penh for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

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. Laguna Beach 72, Phnom Penh 6: Laguna Beach leads by 66 points.
Food & drink. Laguna Beach 40, Phnom Penh 62: Phnom Penh leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Laguna Beach 27, Phnom Penh 62: Phnom Penh leads by 35 points.
Nightlife. Laguna Beach 18, Phnom Penh 58: Phnom Penh leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. Laguna Beach 73, Phnom Penh 28: Laguna Beach leads by 45 points.
Day trips. Laguna Beach 72, Phnom Penh 34: Laguna Beach leads by 38 points.
Good for families. Laguna Beach 68, Phnom Penh 32: Laguna Beach leads by 36 points.
Getting around. Laguna Beach 33, Phnom Penh 35: Phnom Penh leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Laguna Beach and Phnom Penh are level on 46.
Affordability. Laguna Beach 12, Phnom Penh 86: Phnom Penh leads by 74 points.
Live music & performing arts. Laguna Beach 40, Phnom Penh 32: Laguna Beach leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Laguna Beach 47, Phnom Penh 50: Phnom Penh leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Laguna Beach and Phnom Penh.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Laguna Beach
46match

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

Phnom Penh
44match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Laguna Beach in July

28 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
1 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
Laguna BeachPhnom Penh

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Laguna Beach: 1981-2010 normals, Irvine (15.5 km from centre). Phnom Penh: 1991-2020 normals, Phnom-Penh / Pochentong (8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLaguna BeachPhnom Penh
Official language-Khmer
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Riel (KHR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzACG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number911Police 117, ambulance 119, fire 118
Elevation6 m11 m
Main airportJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)18 km from centre53 non-stop destinationsTecho International Airport (KTI)23 km from centre41 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureLaguna BeachPhnom Penh
City population23,0322,129,371
People per km²9073,138
Museums within 10 km23
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Laguna Beach 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.