VacationSelector
A cobbled street of painted houses in the old town, San Miguel de Allende
San Miguel de AllendeA cobbled street of painted houses in the old town
Angkor Wat beyond the palms of the causeway, Siem Reap
Siem ReapAngkor Wat beyond the palms of the causeway

Photos: San Miguel de Allende by Russ Bowling, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Siem Reap by allPhoto Bangkok, Pexels License.

San Miguel de Allende 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 San Miguel de Allende for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on San Miguel de Allende’s own page.

Choose Siem Reap for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

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. San Miguel de Allende 4, Siem Reap 5: Siem Reap leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. San Miguel de Allende 62, Siem Reap 45: San Miguel de Allende leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. San Miguel de Allende 62, Siem Reap 88: Siem Reap leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. San Miguel de Allende 38, Siem Reap 42: Siem Reap leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Miguel de Allende and Siem Reap are level on 40.
Day trips. San Miguel de Allende 77, Siem Reap 55: San Miguel de Allende leads by 22 points.
Good for families. San Miguel de Allende 32, Siem Reap 35: Siem Reap leads by 3 points.
Getting around. San Miguel de Allende 48, Siem Reap 30: San Miguel de Allende leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. San Miguel de Allende 55, Siem Reap 38: San Miguel de Allende leads by 17 points.
Affordability. San Miguel de Allende 50, Siem Reap 88: Siem Reap leads by 38 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Miguel de Allende 40, Siem Reap 32: San Miguel de Allende leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Miguel de Allende 66, Siem Reap 60: San Miguel de Allende leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Miguel de Allende and Siem Reap.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

San Miguel de Allende
48match

Wins on day trips and getting around with your weighting.

Siem Reap
47match

Wins on prices 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.

San Miguel de Allende in July

29 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
132 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
13 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
San Miguel de AllendeSiem Reap

Where the figures come from

San Miguel de Allende's temperatures are measured 54 km from the centre, at Guanajuato, Gto..

San Miguel de Allende 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.

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. San Miguel de Allende: 1991-2020 normals, Guanajuato, Gto. (53.7 km from centre). Siem Reap: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureSan Miguel de AllendeSiem Reap
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaKhmer
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Riel (KHR)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzACG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+7
Emergency number911Police 117, ambulance 119, fire 118
Elevation1,900 m18 m
Main airportGuanajuato International Airport (BJX)77 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsSiem Reap-Angkor International Airport (SAI)39 km from centre14 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan Miguel de AllendeSiem Reap
City population69,811147,866
Museums within 10 km26
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 San Miguel de Allende 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.