VacationSelector
Skiers at the foot of the slopes in the village, Copper Mountain
Copper MountainSkiers at the foot of the slopes in the village
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket

Photos: Copper Mountain by SparkFunElectronics, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0.

Copper Mountain 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 Copper Mountain for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

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

Choose Phuket for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • wellness

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. Copper Mountain 3, Phuket 90: Phuket leads by 87 points.
Food & drink. Copper Mountain 20, Phuket 66: Phuket leads by 46 points.
Culture & sights. Copper Mountain 4, Phuket 35: Phuket leads by 31 points.
Nightlife. Copper Mountain 12, Phuket 72: Phuket leads by 60 points.
Nature & outdoors. Copper Mountain 90, Phuket 80: Copper Mountain leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Copper Mountain 55, Phuket 45: Copper Mountain leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Copper Mountain 62, Phuket 65: Phuket leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Copper Mountain 48, Phuket 22: Copper Mountain leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Copper Mountain 8, Phuket 42: Phuket leads by 34 points.
Affordability. Copper Mountain 18, Phuket 68: Phuket leads by 50 points.
Live music & performing arts. Copper Mountain 8, Phuket 20: Phuket leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Copper Mountain 28, Phuket 82: Phuket leads by 54 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Copper Mountain and Phuket.

Your match

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

Copper Mountain
30match

Wins on getting around and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Phuket
Best match
57match

Wins on beaches 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.

Copper Mountain in July

21 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
41 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

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Copper MountainPhuket

Where the figures come from

Copper Mountain's temperatures are measured 35 km from the centre, at Leadville / Stringtown.

Copper Mountain 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. Copper Mountain: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Leadville / Stringtown (35.2 km from centre). Phuket: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1961-1990) normals, Phuket Airport (26.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCopper MountainPhuket
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
Elevation2,955 m19 m
Main airportDenver International Airport (DEN)132 km from centre231 non-stop destinationsPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCopper MountainPhuket
City population65077,610
People per km²86,468
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 Copper Mountain 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.