VacationSelector
The skyline and the Rocky Mountains over City Park and Ferril Lake, Denver
DenverThe skyline and the Rocky Mountains over City Park and Ferril Lake
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket

Photos: Denver by Zenhaus, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0.

Denver 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 Denver for

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

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

Choose Phuket for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • prices

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. Denver 5, Phuket 90: Phuket leads by 85 points.
Food & drink. Denver 54, Phuket 66: Phuket leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Denver 44, Phuket 35: Denver leads by 9 points.
Nightlife. Denver 47, Phuket 72: Phuket leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Denver 84, Phuket 80: Denver leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Denver 57, Phuket 45: Denver leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Denver 67, Phuket 65: Denver leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Denver 40, Phuket 22: Denver leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Denver 44, Phuket 42: Denver leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Denver 36, Phuket 68: Phuket leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Denver 66, Phuket 20: Denver leads by 46 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Denver 40, Phuket 82: Phuket leads by 42 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Denver and Phuket.

Your match

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

Denver
49match

Wins on live music and the arts and getting around with your weighting.

Phuket
Best match
57match

Wins on beaches 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.

Denver in July

32 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
55 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

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
DenverPhuket

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. Denver: 1991-2020 normals, Denver / Stapleton International, Co. (11.2 km from centre). Phuket: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1961-1990) normals, Phuket Airport (26.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDenverPhuket
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
Elevation1,609 m19 m
Main airportDenver International Airport (DEN)30 km from centre231 non-stop destinationsPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days-

By the numbers

MeasureDenverPhuket
City population715,52277,610
People per km²1,7836,468
Museums within 10 km262
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 Denver 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). 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. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.