VacationSelector
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket
Angkor Wat beyond the palms of the causeway, Siem Reap
Siem ReapAngkor Wat beyond the palms of the causeway

Photos: Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0; Siem Reap by allPhoto Bangkok, Pexels License.

Phuket or Siem Reap?

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 Phuket for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

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

Choose Siem Reap for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Siem Reap’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. Phuket 90, Siem Reap 5: Phuket leads by 85 points.
Food & drink. Phuket 66, Siem Reap 45: Phuket leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Phuket 35, Siem Reap 88: Siem Reap leads by 53 points.
Nightlife. Phuket 72, Siem Reap 42: Phuket leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Phuket 80, Siem Reap 40: Phuket leads by 40 points.
Day trips. Phuket 45, Siem Reap 55: Siem Reap leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Phuket 65, Siem Reap 35: Phuket leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Phuket 22, Siem Reap 30: Siem Reap leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Phuket 42, Siem Reap 38: Phuket leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Phuket 68, Siem Reap 88: Siem Reap leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Phuket 20, Siem Reap 32: Siem Reap leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Phuket 82, Siem Reap 60: Phuket leads by 22 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Phuket and Siem Reap.

Your match

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

Phuket
Best match
57match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Siem Reap
47match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Phuket in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
287 mmrain in the month
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Siem Reap in July

30 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
197 mmrain in the month
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
PhuketSiem Reap

Where the figures come from

Phuket's temperatures are measured 27 km from the centre, at Phuket Airport.

Siem Reap has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Phuket: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1961-1990) normals, Phuket Airport (26.9 km from centre). Siem Reap: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasurePhuketSiem Reap
Official languageThaiKhmer
CurrencyBaht (THB)Riel (KHR)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzACG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+7
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199Police 117, ambulance 119, fire 118
Elevation19 m18 m
Main airportPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinationsSiem Reap-Angkor International Airport (SAI)39 km from centre14 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-21 days

By the numbers

MeasurePhuketSiem Reap
City population77,610147,866
People per km²6,468-
Museums within 10 km26
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Phuket or Siem Reap somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.