VacationSelector
The Plaza de Armas with the cathedral and La Compañía, Cusco
CuscoThe Plaza de Armas with the cathedral and La Compañía
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket

Photos: Cusco by Pedro Szekely, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0.

Cusco 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 Cusco for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • getting around

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

Choose Phuket for

  • beaches
  • families
  • 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. Cusco 3, Phuket 90: Phuket leads by 87 points.
Food & drink. Cusco 56, Phuket 66: Phuket leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Cusco 81, Phuket 35: Cusco leads by 46 points.
Nightlife. Cusco 42, Phuket 72: Phuket leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cusco 86, Phuket 80: Cusco leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Cusco 78, Phuket 45: Cusco leads by 33 points.
Good for families. Cusco 10, Phuket 65: Phuket leads by 55 points.
Getting around. Cusco 48, Phuket 22: Cusco leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Cusco 52, Phuket 42: Cusco leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Cusco 73, Phuket 68: Cusco leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cusco 30, Phuket 20: Cusco leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cusco 33, Phuket 82: Phuket leads by 49 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cusco and Phuket.

Your match

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

Cusco
49match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips with your weighting.

Phuket
Best match
57match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cusco in July

20 °Cdaytime high
1 °Cnight-time low
5 mmrain in the month
No seasea
11 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
CuscoPhuket

Where the figures come from

Cusco's station stands 151 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

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

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cusco: 1991-2020 normals, Cuzco (3.7 km from centre). Phuket: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1961-1990) normals, Phuket Airport (26.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCuscoPhuket
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaThai
CurrencySol (PEN)Baht (THB)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+7
Emergency number111 or 911Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation3,399 m19 m
Main airportAlejandro Velasco Astete International Airport (CUZ)5 km from centre6 non-stop destinationsPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCuscoPhuket
City population428,45077,610
People per km²-6,468
Museums within 10 km112
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
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 Cusco 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). 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. 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.