VacationSelector
Skiers among snow-covered firs, Beaver Creek
Beaver CreekSkiers among snow-covered firs
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket

Photos: Beaver Creek by Joe Lin, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0.

Beaver Creek or Phuket?

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 Beaver Creek for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Phuket for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Phuket’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. Beaver Creek 6, Phuket 90: Phuket leads by 84 points.
Food & drink. Beaver Creek 38, Phuket 66: Phuket leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Beaver Creek 7, Phuket 35: Phuket leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Beaver Creek 12, Phuket 72: Phuket leads by 60 points.
Nature & outdoors. Beaver Creek 90, Phuket 80: Beaver Creek leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Beaver Creek 40, Phuket 45: Phuket leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Beaver Creek 62, Phuket 65: Phuket leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Beaver Creek 45, Phuket 22: Beaver Creek leads by 23 points.
Shopping & style. Beaver Creek 22, Phuket 42: Phuket leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Beaver Creek 5, Phuket 68: Phuket leads by 63 points.
Live music & performing arts. Beaver Creek 36, Phuket 20: Beaver Creek leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Beaver Creek 55, Phuket 82: Phuket leads by 27 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Beaver Creek and Phuket.

Your match

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

Beaver Creek
35match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Phuket
Best match
57match

Wins on beaches 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.

Beaver Creek in July

29 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
31 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Phuket in July

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

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Beaver CreekPhuket

Where the figures come from

Beaver Creek's temperatures are measured 34 km from the centre, at Eagle County / Gypsum.

Beaver Creek's station stands 268 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Beaver Creek 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.

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

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Beaver Creek: 1992-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Eagle County / Gypsum (33.8 km from centre). Phuket: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1961-1990) normals, Phuket Airport (26.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBeaver CreekPhuket
Official language-Thai
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Baht (THB)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number911Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation2,264 m19 m
Main airportEagle County Regional Airport (EGE)34 km from centre16 non-stop destinationsPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days-

By the numbers

MeasureBeaver CreekPhuket
City population-77,610
People per km²-6,468
Museums within 10 km02
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Beaver Creek or Phuket 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.