VacationSelector
The white beach below the high-rise hotels, Orange Beach
Orange BeachThe white beach below the high-rise hotels
The Silver Pagoda, Phnom Penh
Phnom PenhThe Silver Pagoda

Photos: Orange Beach by WeaponizingArchitecture, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Phnom Penh by Francisco Anzola, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Orange 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 Orange Beach for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Phnom Penh for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • nightlife

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. Orange Beach 86, Phnom Penh 6: Orange Beach leads by 80 points.
Food & drink. Orange Beach 40, Phnom Penh 62: Phnom Penh leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Orange Beach 7, Phnom Penh 62: Phnom Penh leads by 55 points.
Nightlife. Orange Beach 30, Phnom Penh 58: Phnom Penh leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Orange Beach 60, Phnom Penh 28: Orange Beach leads by 32 points.
Day trips. Orange Beach 50, Phnom Penh 34: Orange Beach leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Orange Beach 75, Phnom Penh 32: Orange Beach leads by 43 points.
Getting around. Orange Beach 15, Phnom Penh 35: Phnom Penh leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Orange Beach 25, Phnom Penh 46: Phnom Penh leads by 21 points.
Affordability. Orange Beach 38, Phnom Penh 86: Phnom Penh leads by 48 points.
Live music & performing arts. Orange Beach and Phnom Penh are level on 32.
Wellness & relaxation. Orange Beach 32, Phnom Penh 50: Phnom Penh leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Orange Beach and Phnom Penh.

Your match

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

Orange Beach
41match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Phnom Penh
Best match
44match

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.

Orange Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
200 mmrain in the month
29 °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
Orange BeachPhnom Penh

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Orange Beach: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Gulf Shores / Bay Village Mobile Home Park (10.5 km from centre). Phnom Penh: 1991-2020 normals, Phnom-Penh / Pochentong (8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOrange BeachPhnom Penh
Official language-Khmer
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Riel (KHR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzACG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number911Police 117, ambulance 119, fire 118
Elevation4 m11 m
Main airportPensacola International Airport (PNS)41 km from centre27 non-stop destinationsTecho International Airport (KTI)23 km from centre41 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureOrange BeachPhnom Penh
City population8,0952,129,371
People per km²1963,138
Museums within 10 km03
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months-

Where else could you go?

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