VacationSelector
The Silver Pagoda, Phnom Penh
Phnom PenhThe Silver Pagoda
The Dzhumaya Mosque, Plovdiv
PlovdivThe Dzhumaya Mosque

Photos: Phnom Penh by Francisco Anzola, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Plovdiv by Ad Meskens, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Phnom Penh or Plovdiv?

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

  • nightlife
  • shopping
  • food and drink

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

Choose Plovdiv for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Plovdiv’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, Plovdiv 7: Plovdiv leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Phnom Penh 62, Plovdiv 50: Phnom Penh leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Phnom Penh 62, Plovdiv 66: Plovdiv leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Phnom Penh 58, Plovdiv 42: Phnom Penh leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Phnom Penh 28, Plovdiv 68: Plovdiv leads by 40 points.
Day trips. Phnom Penh 34, Plovdiv 70: Plovdiv leads by 36 points.
Good for families. Phnom Penh 32, Plovdiv 40: Plovdiv leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Phnom Penh 35, Plovdiv 65: Plovdiv leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Phnom Penh 46, Plovdiv 33: Phnom Penh leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Phnom Penh 86, Plovdiv 78: Phnom Penh leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Phnom Penh 32, Plovdiv 42: Plovdiv leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Phnom Penh 50, Plovdiv 44: Phnom Penh leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Phnom Penh and Plovdiv.

Your match

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

Phnom Penh
44match

Wins on nightlife and shopping with your weighting.

Plovdiv
Best match
50match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and day trips 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 recordsunshine a day
13 hdaylight a day

Plovdiv in July

31 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
44 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Phnom PenhPlovdiv

Where the figures come from

Plovdiv 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.

Plovdiv's sunshine is measured 75 km from the centre, at Kurdjali.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Phnom Penh: 1991-2020 normals, Phnom-Penh / Pochentong (8 km from centre). Plovdiv: 1997-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Plovdiv (1.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePhnom PenhPlovdiv
Official languageKhmerBulgarian
CurrencyRiel (KHR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsACG230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 117, ambulance 119, fire 118112
Elevation11 m172 m
Main airportTecho International Airport (KTI)23 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsPlovdiv International Airport (PDV)12 km from centre8 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year21 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasurePhnom PenhPlovdiv
City population2,129,371333,994
People per km²3,1383,274
Museums within 10 km318
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10

Where else could you go?

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