VacationSelector
Santo Domingo church behind agaves, Oaxaca
OaxacaSanto Domingo church behind agaves
Angkor Wat beyond the palms of the causeway, Siem Reap
Siem ReapAngkor Wat beyond the palms of the causeway

Photos: Oaxaca by Öskr Rck, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Siem Reap by allPhoto Bangkok, Pexels License.

Oaxaca 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 Oaxaca for

  • food and drink
  • getting around
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Oaxaca’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. Oaxaca and Siem Reap are level on 5.
Food & drink. Oaxaca 84, Siem Reap 45: Oaxaca leads by 39 points.
Culture & sights. Oaxaca 74, Siem Reap 88: Siem Reap leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Oaxaca 40, Siem Reap 42: Siem Reap leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Oaxaca 62, Siem Reap 40: Oaxaca leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Oaxaca 65, Siem Reap 55: Oaxaca leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Oaxaca 40, Siem Reap 35: Oaxaca leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Oaxaca 55, Siem Reap 30: Oaxaca leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Oaxaca 62, Siem Reap 38: Oaxaca leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Oaxaca 77, Siem Reap 88: Siem Reap leads by 11 points.
Live music & performing arts. Oaxaca 38, Siem Reap 32: Oaxaca leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Oaxaca 50, Siem Reap 60: Siem Reap leads by 10 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Oaxaca and Siem Reap.

Your match

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

Oaxaca
Best match
54match

Wins on food and drink and getting around 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.

Oaxaca in July

28 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
80 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
13 hdaylight a day

Siem Reap in July

30 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
197 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
OaxacaSiem Reap

Where the figures come from

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. Oaxaca: 1961-1990 normals, Oaxaca, Oax. (1.1 km from centre). Siem Reap: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureOaxacaSiem Reap
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaKhmer
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Riel (KHR)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzACG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+7
Emergency number911Police 117, ambulance 119, fire 118
Elevation1,555 m18 m
Main airportXoxocotlán International Airport (OAX)7 km from centre14 non-stop destinationsSiem Reap-Angkor International Airport (SAI)39 km from centre14 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureOaxacaSiem Reap
City population258,913147,866
People per km²3,028-
Museums within 10 km106
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Oaxaca 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. 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.