VacationSelector
The wide beach and its hotels in morning light, Daytona Beach
Daytona BeachThe wide beach and its hotels in morning light
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket

Photos: Daytona Beach by Han Zheng, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0.

Daytona Beach 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 Daytona Beach for

  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Phuket for

  • wellness
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

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. Daytona Beach 80, Phuket 90: Phuket leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Daytona Beach 36, Phuket 66: Phuket leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Daytona Beach 30, Phuket 35: Phuket leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Daytona Beach 40, Phuket 72: Phuket leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Daytona Beach 56, Phuket 80: Phuket leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Daytona Beach 66, Phuket 45: Daytona Beach leads by 21 points.
Good for families. Daytona Beach 60, Phuket 65: Phuket leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Daytona Beach 18, Phuket 22: Phuket leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Daytona Beach 27, Phuket 42: Phuket leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Daytona Beach 46, Phuket 68: Phuket leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Daytona Beach 30, Phuket 20: Daytona Beach leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Daytona Beach 30, Phuket 82: Phuket leads by 52 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Daytona Beach and Phuket.

Your match

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

Daytona Beach
43match

Wins on day trips and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Phuket
Best match
57match

Wins on wellness 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.

Daytona Beach in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
153 mmrain in the month
28 °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
Daytona BeachPhuket

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. Daytona Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Daytona Beach / Mansfield Mobile Home Park (4.9 km from centre). Phuket: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1961-1990) normals, Phuket Airport (26.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDaytona BeachPhuket
Official language-Thai
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Baht (THB)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number911Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation4 m19 m
Main airportDaytona Beach International Airport (DAB)5 km from centre8 non-stop destinationsPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureDaytona BeachPhuket
City population72,64777,610
People per km²4406,468
Museums within 10 km62
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C9 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Daytona Beach 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). 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.