VacationSelector
Bodrum Castle and gulets in the harbour, Bodrum
BodrumBodrum Castle and gulets in the harbour
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket

Photos: Bodrum by Serhio Magpie, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0.

Bodrum 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 Bodrum for

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

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

Choose Phuket for

  • prices
  • 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. Bodrum 80, Phuket 90: Phuket leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Bodrum 60, Phuket 66: Phuket leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Bodrum 45, Phuket 35: Bodrum leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Bodrum 65, Phuket 72: Phuket leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bodrum 60, Phuket 80: Phuket leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Bodrum 72, Phuket 45: Bodrum leads by 27 points.
Good for families. Bodrum 66, Phuket 65: Bodrum leads by 1 points.
Getting around. Bodrum 42, Phuket 22: Bodrum leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Bodrum 45, Phuket 42: Bodrum leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Bodrum 38, Phuket 68: Phuket leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bodrum 32, Phuket 20: Bodrum leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bodrum 52, Phuket 82: Phuket leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bodrum and Phuket.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Bodrum
55match

Wins on day trips and getting around with your weighting.

Phuket
57match

Wins on prices 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.

Bodrum in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
2 mmrain in the month
24 °Csea
14 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
BodrumPhuket

Where the figures come from

Bodrum's temperatures are measured 43 km from the centre, at Kos Airport.

Bodrum 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. Bodrum: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Kos Airport (42.7 km from centre). Phuket: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1961-1990) normals, Phuket Airport (26.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBodrumPhuket
Official languageTurkishThai
CurrencyTurkish Lira (TRY)Baht (THB)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+7
Emergency number112Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation10 m19 m
Main airportMilas Bodrum International Airport (BJV)32 km from centre83 non-stop destinationsPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days-

By the numbers

MeasureBodrumPhuket
City population175,00077,610
People per km²3146,468
Museums within 10 km42
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bodrum 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). 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. 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.