VacationSelector
The Silver Pagoda, Phnom Penh
Phnom PenhThe Silver Pagoda
The top of the Mountaintop Express lift on Vail Mountain, Vail
VailThe top of the Mountaintop Express lift on Vail Mountain

Photos: Phnom Penh by Francisco Anzola, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Vail by DReifGalaxyM31, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Phnom Penh or Vail?

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
  • nightlife

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

Choose Vail for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Vail’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, Vail 5: Phnom Penh leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Phnom Penh 62, Vail 35: Phnom Penh leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Phnom Penh 62, Vail 10: Phnom Penh leads by 52 points.
Nightlife. Phnom Penh 58, Vail 30: Phnom Penh leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Phnom Penh 28, Vail 92: Vail leads by 64 points.
Day trips. Phnom Penh 34, Vail 45: Vail leads by 11 points.
Good for families. Phnom Penh 32, Vail 55: Vail leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Phnom Penh 35, Vail 62: Vail leads by 27 points.
Shopping & style. Phnom Penh 46, Vail 35: Phnom Penh leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Phnom Penh 86, Vail 5: Phnom Penh leads by 81 points.
Live music & performing arts. Phnom Penh 32, Vail 42: Vail leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Phnom Penh 50, Vail 48: Phnom Penh leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Phnom Penh and Vail.

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.

Vail
39match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around 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
13 hdaylight a day

Vail in July

29 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
35 mmrain in the month
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Phnom PenhVail

Where the figures come from

Vail's temperatures are measured 47 km from the centre, at Kremmling.

Vail's station stands 186 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Vail 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). Vail: 2006-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Kremmling (46.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePhnom PenhVail
Official languageKhmer-
CurrencyRiel (KHR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsACG230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 117, ambulance 119, fire 118911
Elevation11 m2,445 m
Main airportTecho International Airport (KTI)23 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsEagle County Regional Airport (EGE)48 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year21 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasurePhnom PenhVail
City population2,129,3714,835
People per km²3,138400
Museums within 10 km31
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 Vail 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. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.