VacationSelector
Flinders Street Station, Melbourne
MelbourneFlinders Street Station
The Silver Pagoda, Phnom Penh
Phnom PenhThe Silver Pagoda

Photos: Melbourne by Medelam, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Phnom Penh by Francisco Anzola, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Melbourne 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 Melbourne for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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

Choose Phnom Penh for

  • prices
  • 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. Melbourne 50, Phnom Penh 6: Melbourne leads by 44 points.
Food & drink. Melbourne 75, Phnom Penh 62: Melbourne leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Melbourne 57, Phnom Penh 62: Phnom Penh leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Melbourne 75, Phnom Penh 58: Melbourne leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Melbourne 70, Phnom Penh 28: Melbourne leads by 42 points.
Day trips. Melbourne 62, Phnom Penh 34: Melbourne leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Melbourne 73, Phnom Penh 32: Melbourne leads by 41 points.
Getting around. Melbourne 76, Phnom Penh 35: Melbourne leads by 41 points.
Shopping & style. Melbourne 70, Phnom Penh 46: Melbourne leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Melbourne 31, Phnom Penh 86: Phnom Penh leads by 55 points.
Live music & performing arts. Melbourne 72, Phnom Penh 32: Melbourne leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Melbourne 54, Phnom Penh 50: Melbourne leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Melbourne and Phnom Penh.

Your match

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

Melbourne
Best match
64match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors 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.

Melbourne in July

14 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 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
MelbournePhnom Penh

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Melbourne: 1991-2020 normals, Latrobe University / Kingsbury (13.1 km from centre). Phnom Penh: 1991-2020 normals, Phnom-Penh / Pochentong (8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMelbournePhnom Penh
Official languageEnglishKhmer
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Riel (KHR)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzACG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10, UTC+11 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number000Police 117, ambulance 119, fire 118
Elevation31 m11 m
Main airportMelbourne Airport (MEL)19 km from centre69 non-stop destinationsTecho International Airport (KTI)23 km from centre41 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureMelbournePhnom Penh
City population5,350,7052,129,371
People per km²5353,138
Museums within 10 km433
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 Melbourne 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.