VacationSelector
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay
The Silver Pagoda, Phnom Penh
Phnom PenhThe Silver Pagoda

Photos: Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License; Phnom Penh by Francisco Anzola, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Montego Bay 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 Montego Bay for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

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

Choose Phnom Penh for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

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. Montego Bay 84, Phnom Penh 6: Montego Bay leads by 78 points.
Food & drink. Montego Bay 50, Phnom Penh 62: Phnom Penh leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Montego Bay 28, Phnom Penh 62: Phnom Penh leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. Montego Bay 42, Phnom Penh 58: Phnom Penh leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montego Bay 65, Phnom Penh 28: Montego Bay leads by 37 points.
Day trips. Montego Bay 50, Phnom Penh 34: Montego Bay leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Montego Bay 48, Phnom Penh 32: Montego Bay leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Montego Bay 20, Phnom Penh 35: Phnom Penh leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Montego Bay 25, Phnom Penh 46: Phnom Penh leads by 21 points.
Affordability. Montego Bay 38, Phnom Penh 86: Phnom Penh leads by 48 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montego Bay and Phnom Penh are level on 32.
Wellness & relaxation. Montego Bay 45, Phnom Penh 50: Phnom Penh leads by 5 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montego Bay and Phnom Penh.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Montego Bay
44match

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.

Montego Bay in July

34 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
75 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 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
Montego BayPhnom Penh

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre). Phnom Penh: 1991-2020 normals, Phnom-Penh / Pochentong (8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontego BayPhnom Penh
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican PatoisKhmer
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)Riel (KHR)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzACG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+7
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110Police 117, ambulance 119, fire 118
Elevation19 m11 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsTecho International Airport (KTI)23 km from centre41 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontego BayPhnom Penh
City population123,9942,129,371
People per km²-3,138
Museums within 10 km03
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Montego Bay 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). 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.