VacationSelector
The Hôtel du Palais, Biarritz
BiarritzThe Hôtel du Palais
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket

Photos: Biarritz by Lilipiapia, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0.

Biarritz 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 Biarritz for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Phuket for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • beaches

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. Biarritz 68, Phuket 90: Phuket leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Biarritz 62, Phuket 66: Phuket leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Biarritz 33, Phuket 35: Phuket leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Biarritz 36, Phuket 72: Phuket leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Biarritz 74, Phuket 80: Phuket leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Biarritz 80, Phuket 45: Biarritz leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Biarritz 62, Phuket 65: Phuket leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Biarritz 58, Phuket 22: Biarritz leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Biarritz and Phuket are level on 42.
Affordability. Biarritz 30, Phuket 68: Phuket leads by 38 points.
Live music & performing arts. Biarritz 38, Phuket 20: Biarritz leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Biarritz 64, Phuket 82: Phuket leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Biarritz and Phuket.

Your match

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

Biarritz
54match

Wins on getting around and day trips with your weighting.

Phuket
Best match
57match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Biarritz in July

24 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
97 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
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
BiarritzPhuket

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. Biarritz: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Biarritz (2.5 km from centre). Phuket: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1961-1990) normals, Phuket Airport (26.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBiarritzPhuket
Official languageFrenchThai
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Baht (THB)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number112Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation0 m19 m
Main airportBiarritz Pays Basque airport (BIQ)3 km from centre25 non-stop destinationsPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureBiarritzPhuket
City population26,20677,610
People per km²2,2406,468
Museums within 10 km82
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Biarritz 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. 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.