VacationSelector
A dhow below the towers of West Bay, Doha
DohaA dhow below the towers of West Bay
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket

Photos: Doha by Gregory Hawken Kramer, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0.

Doha 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 Doha for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

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

Choose Phuket for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife
  • beaches

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. Doha 45, Phuket 90: Phuket leads by 45 points.
Food & drink. Doha 55, Phuket 66: Phuket leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Doha 55, Phuket 35: Doha leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Doha 20, Phuket 72: Phuket leads by 52 points.
Nature & outdoors. Doha 7, Phuket 80: Phuket leads by 73 points.
Day trips. Doha 5, Phuket 45: Phuket leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Doha 60, Phuket 65: Phuket leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Doha 45, Phuket 22: Doha leads by 23 points.
Shopping & style. Doha 60, Phuket 42: Doha leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Doha 38, Phuket 68: Phuket leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Doha 30, Phuket 20: Doha leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Doha 38, Phuket 82: Phuket leads by 44 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Doha and Phuket.

Your match

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

Doha
38match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

Phuket
Best match
57match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

Doha in July

43 °Cdaytime high
33 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
33 °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°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
DohaPhuket

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. Doha: 1991-2020 normals, Doha International Airport (5.5 km from centre). Phuket: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1961-1990) normals, Phuket Airport (26.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDohaPhuket
Official languageArabicThai
CurrencyQatari Rial (QAR)Baht (THB)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+7
Emergency number999Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation0 m19 m
Main airportHamad International Airport (DOH)8 km from centre195 non-stop destinationsPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasureDohaPhuket
City population1,186,02377,610
People per km²8,9856,468
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 Doha 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). 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. 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.