VacationSelector
The Silver Pagoda, Phnom Penh
Phnom PenhThe Silver Pagoda
Fishermen on the rocks at Playa Santa Teresa at sunset, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica
Santa Teresa, Costa RicaFishermen on the rocks at Playa Santa Teresa at sunset

Photos: Phnom Penh by Francisco Anzola, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Santa Teresa, Costa Rica by Christopher Crouzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Phnom Penh or Santa Teresa, Costa Rica?

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
  • shopping

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

Choose Santa Teresa, Costa Rica for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Santa Teresa, Costa Rica’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, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 84: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 78 points.
Food & drink. Phnom Penh 62, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 40: Phnom Penh leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Phnom Penh 62, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 4: Phnom Penh leads by 58 points.
Nightlife. Phnom Penh 58, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 30: Phnom Penh leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Phnom Penh 28, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 78: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 50 points.
Day trips. Phnom Penh 34, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Phnom Penh leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Phnom Penh 32, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 35: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Phnom Penh 35, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 15: Phnom Penh leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Phnom Penh 46, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 12: Phnom Penh leads by 34 points.
Affordability. Phnom Penh 86, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 25: Phnom Penh leads by 61 points.
Live music & performing arts. Phnom Penh 32, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 8: Phnom Penh leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Phnom Penh 50, Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 70: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Phnom Penh and Santa Teresa, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Phnom Penh
Best match
44match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica
34match

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

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
218 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Phnom PenhSanta Teresa, Costa Rica

Where the figures come from

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica's temperatures are measured 52 km from the centre, at Puntarenas.

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 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). Santa Teresa, Costa Rica: 1961-1990 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puntarenas (51.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePhnom PenhSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
Official languageKhmerSpanish
CurrencyRiel (KHR)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsACG230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 117, ambulance 119, fire 118911
Elevation11 m19 m
Main airportTecho International Airport (KTI)23 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)113 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year21 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePhnom PenhSanta Teresa, Costa Rica
City population2,129,371-
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 Santa Teresa, Costa Rica 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.