VacationSelector
Kek Lok Si temple on the hillside, Penang
PenangKek Lok Si temple on the hillside
Angkor Wat beyond the palms of the causeway, Siem Reap
Siem ReapAngkor Wat beyond the palms of the causeway

Photos: Penang by Supanut Arunoprayote, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Siem Reap by allPhoto Bangkok, Pexels License.

Penang 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 Penang for

  • food and drink
  • beaches
  • families

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

Choose Siem Reap for

  • culture and sights
  • wellness
  • day trips

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. Penang 44, Siem Reap 5: Penang leads by 39 points.
Food & drink. Penang 86, Siem Reap 45: Penang leads by 41 points.
Culture & sights. Penang 70, Siem Reap 88: Siem Reap leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Penang 40, Siem Reap 42: Siem Reap leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Penang 55, Siem Reap 40: Penang leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Penang 42, Siem Reap 55: Siem Reap leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Penang 52, Siem Reap 35: Penang leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Penang 40, Siem Reap 30: Penang leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Penang 42, Siem Reap 38: Penang leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Penang 78, Siem Reap 88: Siem Reap leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Penang 30, Siem Reap 32: Siem Reap leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Penang 42, Siem Reap 60: Siem Reap leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Penang and Siem Reap.

Your match

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

Penang
Best match
52match

Wins on food and drink and beaches with your weighting.

Siem Reap
47match

Wins on culture and sights and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Penang in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
189 mmrain in the month
30 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Siem Reap in July

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

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
PenangSiem 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. Penang: 1991-2020 normals, Penang / Bayan Lepas (14.5 km from centre). Siem Reap: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasurePenangSiem Reap
Official languageMalayKhmer
CurrencyMalaysian Ringgit (MYR)Riel (KHR)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzACG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+7
Emergency number999Police 117, ambulance 119, fire 118
Elevation4 m18 m
Main airportPenang International Airport (PEN)14 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsSiem Reap-Angkor International Airport (SAI)39 km from centre14 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-21 days

By the numbers

MeasurePenangSiem Reap
City population794,313147,866
Museums within 10 km96
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Penang 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.