VacationSelector
The Forbidden City, Beijing
BeijingThe Forbidden City
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket

Photos: Beijing by BI ravencrow, Pexels License; Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0.

Beijing 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 Beijing for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • getting around

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

Choose Phuket for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Beijing 6, Phuket 90: Phuket leads by 84 points.
Food & drink. Beijing 81, Phuket 66: Beijing leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Beijing 93, Phuket 35: Beijing leads by 58 points.
Nightlife. Beijing 58, Phuket 72: Phuket leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Beijing 60, Phuket 80: Phuket leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Beijing 85, Phuket 45: Beijing leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Beijing 64, Phuket 65: Phuket leads by 1 points.
Getting around. Beijing 69, Phuket 22: Beijing leads by 47 points.
Shopping & style. Beijing 72, Phuket 42: Beijing leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Beijing and Phuket are level on 68.
Live music & performing arts. Beijing 68, Phuket 20: Beijing leads by 48 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Beijing 55, Phuket 82: Phuket leads by 27 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Beijing
Best match
65match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Phuket
57match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Beijing in July

32 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
163 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Phuket in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
287 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
BeijingPhuket

Where the figures come from

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

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Beijing: 1991-2020 normals, Beijing (11.1 km from centre). Phuket: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1961-1990) normals, Phuket Airport (26.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBeijingPhuket
Official languagePutonghuaThai
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)Baht (THB)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+7
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation43 m19 m
Main airportBeijing Capital International Airport (PEK)25 km from centre104 non-stop destinationsPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days-

By the numbers

MeasureBeijingPhuket
City population21,893,09577,610
People per km²1,3346,468
Museums within 10 km832
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km60
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 Beijing or Phuket 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.