VacationSelector
The Silver Pagoda, Phnom Penh
Phnom PenhThe Silver Pagoda
Punta del Este

Photos: Phnom Penh by Francisco Anzola, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Phnom Penh or Punta del Este?

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

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • wellness

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

Choose Punta del Este for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Punta del Este’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, Punta del Este 72: Punta del Este leads by 66 points.
Food & drink. Phnom Penh 62, Punta del Este 45: Phnom Penh leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Phnom Penh 62, Punta del Este 22: Phnom Penh leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Phnom Penh 58, Punta del Este 60: Punta del Este leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Phnom Penh 28, Punta del Este 55: Punta del Este leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Phnom Penh 34, Punta del Este 45: Punta del Este leads by 11 points.
Good for families. Phnom Penh 32, Punta del Este 55: Punta del Este leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Phnom Penh and Punta del Este are level on 35.
Shopping & style. Phnom Penh 46, Punta del Este 42: Phnom Penh leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Phnom Penh 86, Punta del Este 20: Phnom Penh leads by 66 points.
Live music & performing arts. Phnom Penh 32, Punta del Este 22: Phnom Penh leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Phnom Penh 50, Punta del Este 32: Phnom Penh leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Phnom Penh and Punta del Este.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Phnom Penh
44match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Punta del Este
42match

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 recordsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Punta del Este in July

15 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
101 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Phnom PenhPunta del Este

Where the figures come from

Punta del Este's temperatures are measured 79 km from the centre, at Rocha.

Punta del Este 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. Phnom Penh: 1991-2020 normals, Phnom-Penh / Pochentong (8 km from centre). Punta del Este: 1991-2020 normals, Rocha (78.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePhnom PenhPunta del Este
Official languageKhmer-
CurrencyRiel (KHR)Peso Uruguayo (UYU)
SocketsACG230 V, 50 HzCFIL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-3
Emergency numberPolice 117, ambulance 119, fire 118911
Elevation11 m11 m
Main airportTecho International Airport (KTI)23 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsCapitan Corbeta CA Curbelo International Airport (PDP)18 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year21 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasurePhnom PenhPunta del Este
City population2,129,3719,277
People per km²3,138455
Museums within 10 km35
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Phnom Penh or Punta del Este 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.