VacationSelector
Praia Mole in Florianopolis, Florianopolis
FlorianopolisPraia Mole in Florianopolis
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket

Photos: Florianopolis by Papa Pic, CC0; Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0.

Florianopolis 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 Florianopolis for

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

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

Choose Phuket for

  • wellness
  • nightlife
  • shopping

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. Florianopolis 85, Phuket 90: Phuket leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Florianopolis 58, Phuket 66: Phuket leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Florianopolis 33, Phuket 35: Phuket leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Florianopolis 60, Phuket 72: Phuket leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Florianopolis 78, Phuket 80: Phuket leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Florianopolis 50, Phuket 45: Florianopolis leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Florianopolis 60, Phuket 65: Phuket leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Florianopolis 28, Phuket 22: Florianopolis leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Florianopolis 33, Phuket 42: Phuket leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Florianopolis 60, Phuket 68: Phuket leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Florianopolis 28, Phuket 20: Florianopolis leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Florianopolis 45, Phuket 82: Phuket leads by 37 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Florianopolis and Phuket.

Your match

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

Florianopolis
52match

Wins on live music and the arts and getting around 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.

Florianopolis in July

21 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Phuket in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
287 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
FlorianopolisPhuket

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. Florianopolis: 1991-2020 normals, Florianopolis (1.7 km from centre). Phuket: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1961-1990) normals, Phuket Airport (26.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFlorianopolisPhuket
Official languagePortugueseThai
CurrencyBrazilian Real (BRL)Baht (THB)
SocketsCN60 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-3UTC+7
Emergency numberPolice 190, ambulance 192, fire 193Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation3 m19 m
Main airportHercílio Luz International Airport (FLN)9 km from centre21 non-stop destinationsPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days-

By the numbers

MeasureFlorianopolisPhuket
City population587,48677,610
People per km²8706,468
Museums within 10 km112
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C7 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Florianopolis 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.