VacationSelector
The lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park, Paphos
PaphosThe lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park
The Silver Pagoda, Phnom Penh
Phnom PenhThe Silver Pagoda

Photos: Paphos by Nikodem Nijaki, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Phnom Penh by Francisco Anzola, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Paphos 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 Paphos for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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

Choose Phnom Penh for

  • prices
  • shopping
  • 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. Paphos 76, Phnom Penh 6: Paphos leads by 70 points.
Food & drink. Paphos 45, Phnom Penh 62: Phnom Penh leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Paphos and Phnom Penh are level on 62.
Nightlife. Paphos 38, Phnom Penh 58: Phnom Penh leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Paphos 70, Phnom Penh 28: Paphos leads by 42 points.
Day trips. Paphos 64, Phnom Penh 34: Paphos leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Paphos 68, Phnom Penh 32: Paphos leads by 36 points.
Getting around. Paphos 40, Phnom Penh 35: Paphos leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Paphos 25, Phnom Penh 46: Phnom Penh leads by 21 points.
Affordability. Paphos 52, Phnom Penh 86: Phnom Penh leads by 34 points.
Live music & performing arts. Paphos 22, Phnom Penh 32: Phnom Penh leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Paphos 42, Phnom Penh 50: Phnom Penh leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Paphos and Phnom Penh.

Your match

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

Paphos
Best match
50match

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

Phnom Penh
44match

Wins on prices and shopping with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Paphos in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
27 °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
PaphosPhnom Penh

Where the figures come from

Paphos has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Paphos: 1991-2020 normals, Paphos Airport (8.4 km from centre). Phnom Penh: 1991-2020 normals, Phnom-Penh / Pochentong (8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePaphosPhnom Penh
Official languageTurkish, Greek, Modern GreekKhmer
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Riel (KHR)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzACG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number112Police 117, ambulance 119, fire 118
Elevation72 m11 m
Main airportPaphos International Airport (PFO)8 km from centre58 non-stop destinationsTecho International Airport (KTI)23 km from centre41 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasurePaphosPhnom Penh
City population35,9612,129,371
People per km²1,9873,138
Museums within 10 km43
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Paphos 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.