VacationSelector
The Silver Pagoda, Phnom Penh
Phnom PenhThe Silver Pagoda
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture

Photos: Phnom Penh by Francisco Anzola, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Phnom Penh or Playa del Carmen?

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 Phnom Penh for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • food and drink

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

Choose Playa del Carmen for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Playa del Carmen’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. Phnom Penh 6, Playa del Carmen 88: Playa del Carmen leads by 82 points.
Food & drink. Phnom Penh 62, Playa del Carmen 52: Phnom Penh leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Phnom Penh 62, Playa del Carmen 12: Phnom Penh leads by 50 points.
Nightlife. Phnom Penh 58, Playa del Carmen 66: Playa del Carmen leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Phnom Penh 28, Playa del Carmen 74: Playa del Carmen leads by 46 points.
Day trips. Phnom Penh 34, Playa del Carmen 72: Playa del Carmen leads by 38 points.
Good for families. Phnom Penh 32, Playa del Carmen 78: Playa del Carmen leads by 46 points.
Getting around. Phnom Penh 35, Playa del Carmen 55: Playa del Carmen leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Phnom Penh 46, Playa del Carmen 38: Phnom Penh leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Phnom Penh 86, Playa del Carmen 52: Phnom Penh leads by 34 points.
Live music & performing arts. Phnom Penh 32, Playa del Carmen 22: Phnom Penh leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Phnom Penh 50, Playa del Carmen 54: Playa del Carmen leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Phnom Penh and Playa del Carmen.

Your match

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

Phnom Penh
44match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

Playa del Carmen
Best match
55match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Phnom Penh in July

33 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
168 mmrain in the month
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Playa del Carmen in July

29 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
96 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Phnom PenhPlaya del Carmen

Where the figures come from

Playa del Carmen 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. Phnom Penh: 1991-2020 normals, Phnom-Penh / Pochentong (8 km from centre). Playa del Carmen: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasurePhnom PenhPlaya del Carmen
Official languageKhmerSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyRiel (KHR)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsACG230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 117, ambulance 119, fire 118911
Elevation11 m8 m
Main airportTecho International Airport (KTI)23 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year21 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasurePhnom PenhPlaya del Carmen
City population2,129,371304,942
People per km²3,138-
Museums within 10 km30
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Phnom Penh or Playa del Carmen 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). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.