VacationSelector
The church of San Francisco under a blue sky, Quito
QuitoThe church of San Francisco under a blue sky
Angkor Wat beyond the palms of the causeway, Siem Reap
Siem ReapAngkor Wat beyond the palms of the causeway

Photos: Quito by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Siem Reap by allPhoto Bangkok, Pexels License.

Quito 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 Quito for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • food and drink

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

Choose Siem Reap for

  • wellness
  • culture and sights
  • prices

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. Quito and Siem Reap are level on 5.
Food & drink. Quito 54, Siem Reap 45: Quito leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Quito 77, Siem Reap 88: Siem Reap leads by 11 points.
Nightlife. Quito 40, Siem Reap 42: Siem Reap leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Quito 86, Siem Reap 40: Quito leads by 46 points.
Day trips. Quito and Siem Reap are level on 55.
Good for families. Quito 32, Siem Reap 35: Siem Reap leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Quito 45, Siem Reap 30: Quito leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Quito 40, Siem Reap 38: Quito leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Quito 78, Siem Reap 88: Siem Reap leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Quito 38, Siem Reap 32: Quito leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Quito 44, Siem Reap 60: Siem Reap leads by 16 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Quito and Siem Reap.

Your match

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

Quito
Best match
50match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around with your weighting.

Siem Reap
47match

Wins on wellness and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Quito in July

18 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
12 hdaylight a day

Siem Reap in July

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

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
QuitoSiem Reap

Where the figures come from

Quito's station stands 208 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

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. Quito: 1961-1990 normals, Izobamba-Santa Catalina (16.8 km from centre). Siem Reap: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureQuitoSiem Reap
Official languageSpanish, Shuar, Northern QuichuaKhmer
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Riel (KHR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzACG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+7
Emergency number911Police 117, ambulance 119, fire 118
Elevation2,850 m18 m
Main airportMariscal Sucre International Airport (UIO)20 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsSiem Reap-Angkor International Airport (SAI)39 km from centre14 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureQuitoSiem Reap
City population1,763,275147,866
People per km²4,735-
Museums within 10 km166
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Quito or Siem Reap 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). 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. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.