VacationSelector
The cathedral above the old town, Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de CompostelaThe cathedral above the old town
Angkor Wat beyond the palms of the causeway, Siem Reap
Siem ReapAngkor Wat beyond the palms of the causeway

Photos: Santiago de Compostela by Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez (Lmbuga), CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Siem Reap by allPhoto Bangkok, Pexels License.

Santiago de Compostela 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 Santiago de Compostela for

  • getting around
  • beaches
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Santiago de Compostela’s own page.

Choose Siem Reap for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • wellness

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. Santiago de Compostela 32, Siem Reap 5: Santiago de Compostela leads by 27 points.
Food & drink. Santiago de Compostela 68, Siem Reap 45: Santiago de Compostela leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Santiago de Compostela 70, Siem Reap 88: Siem Reap leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Santiago de Compostela 45, Siem Reap 42: Santiago de Compostela leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santiago de Compostela 62, Siem Reap 40: Santiago de Compostela leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Santiago de Compostela 72, Siem Reap 55: Santiago de Compostela leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Santiago de Compostela 42, Siem Reap 35: Santiago de Compostela leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Santiago de Compostela 70, Siem Reap 30: Santiago de Compostela leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Santiago de Compostela 35, Siem Reap 38: Siem Reap leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Santiago de Compostela 64, Siem Reap 88: Siem Reap leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santiago de Compostela 40, Siem Reap 32: Santiago de Compostela leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santiago de Compostela 42, Siem Reap 60: Siem Reap leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santiago de Compostela and Siem Reap.

Your match

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

Santiago de Compostela
Best match
54match

Wins on getting around and beaches 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.

Santiago de Compostela in July

25 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
41 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
17 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Siem Reap in July

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

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Santiago de CompostelaSiem Reap

Where the figures come from

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. Santiago de Compostela: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago / Labacolla (8.4 km from centre). Siem Reap: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureSantiago de CompostelaSiem Reap
Official languageSpanishKhmer
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Riel (KHR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzACG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number112Police 117, ambulance 119, fire 118
Elevation260 m18 m
Main airportSantiago-Rosalía de Castro Airport (SCQ)10 km from centre29 non-stop destinationsSiem Reap-Angkor International Airport (SAI)39 km from centre14 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureSantiago de CompostelaSiem Reap
City population100,965147,866
People per km²459-
Museums within 10 km66
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Santiago de Compostela 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. 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. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.