VacationSelector
The Silver Pagoda, Phnom Penh
Phnom PenhThe Silver Pagoda
The Warrior on a Horse, Macedonia Square, Skopje
SkopjeThe Warrior on a Horse, Macedonia Square

Photos: Phnom Penh by Francisco Anzola, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Skopje by George M. Groutas, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Phnom Penh or Skopje?

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

  • wellness
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

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

Choose Skopje for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Skopje’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 and Skopje are level on 6.
Food & drink. Phnom Penh 62, Skopje 52: Phnom Penh leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Phnom Penh 62, Skopje 56: Phnom Penh leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Phnom Penh 58, Skopje 42: Phnom Penh leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Phnom Penh 28, Skopje 70: Skopje leads by 42 points.
Day trips. Phnom Penh 34, Skopje 56: Skopje leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Phnom Penh 32, Skopje 35: Skopje leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Phnom Penh 35, Skopje 45: Skopje leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Phnom Penh 46, Skopje 40: Phnom Penh leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Phnom Penh 86, Skopje 80: Phnom Penh leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Phnom Penh 32, Skopje 38: Skopje leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Phnom Penh 50, Skopje 27: Phnom Penh leads by 23 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Phnom Penh and Skopje.

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 wellness and nightlife with your weighting.

Skopje
46match

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

Skopje in July

32 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
31 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Phnom PenhSkopje

Where the figures come from

Skopje 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.

Skopje's sunshine is measured 68 km from the centre, at Stip.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Phnom Penh: 1991-2020 normals, Phnom-Penh / Pochentong (8 km from centre). Skopje: 1991-2020 (sunshine 1961-1990) normals, Skopje-Petrovec (18.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePhnom PenhSkopje
Official languageKhmerAlbanian, Macedonian
CurrencyRiel (KHR)Denar (MKD)
SocketsACG230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 117, ambulance 119, fire 118112
Elevation11 m251 m
Main airportTecho International Airport (KTI)23 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsSkopje International Airport (SKP)16 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year21 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasurePhnom PenhSkopje
City population2,129,371422,540
People per km²3,138739
Museums within 10 km317
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 Skopje 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.