VacationSelector
The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, Muscat
MuscatThe Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque
Angkor Wat beyond the palms of the causeway, Siem Reap
Siem ReapAngkor Wat beyond the palms of the causeway

Photos: Muscat by Alli Khalil, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Siem Reap by allPhoto Bangkok, Pexels License.

Muscat 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 Muscat for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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

Choose Siem Reap for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

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. Muscat 72, Siem Reap 5: Muscat leads by 67 points.
Food & drink. Muscat 44, Siem Reap 45: Siem Reap leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Muscat 55, Siem Reap 88: Siem Reap leads by 33 points.
Nightlife. Muscat 14, Siem Reap 42: Siem Reap leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Muscat 70, Siem Reap 40: Muscat leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Muscat 62, Siem Reap 55: Muscat leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Muscat 52, Siem Reap 35: Muscat leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Muscat 20, Siem Reap 30: Siem Reap leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Muscat 42, Siem Reap 38: Muscat leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Muscat 45, Siem Reap 88: Siem Reap leads by 43 points.
Live music & performing arts. Muscat 40, Siem Reap 32: Muscat leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Muscat 55, Siem Reap 60: Siem Reap leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Muscat and Siem Reap.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Muscat
48match

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

Siem Reap
47match

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.

Muscat in July

33 °Cdaytime high
30 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
31 °Csea
13 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
MuscatSiem Reap

Where the figures come from

Muscat's sunshine is measured 32 km from the centre, at Seeb, International 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. Muscat: 1991-2020 normals, Qaboos Port (3.4 km from centre). Siem Reap: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureMuscatSiem Reap
Official languageArabicKhmer
CurrencyRial Omani (OMR)Riel (KHR)
SocketsCG240 V, 50 HzACG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+4UTC+7
Emergency number968Police 117, ambulance 119, fire 118
Elevation69 m18 m
Main airportMuscat International Airport (MCT)31 km from centre83 non-stop destinationsSiem Reap-Angkor International Airport (SAI)39 km from centre14 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-21 days

By the numbers

MeasureMuscatSiem Reap
City population1,421,409147,866
People per km²406-
Museums within 10 km106
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 Muscat 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.