VacationSelector
Hot-air balloons over Cappadocia at sunrise, Goreme
GoremeHot-air balloons over Cappadocia at sunrise
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket

Photos: Goreme by Guerrero De la Luz, Pexels License; Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0.

Goreme 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 Goreme for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Phuket for

  • beaches
  • 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. Goreme 3, Phuket 90: Phuket leads by 87 points.
Food & drink. Goreme 20, Phuket 66: Phuket leads by 46 points.
Culture & sights. Goreme 45, Phuket 35: Goreme leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Goreme 5, Phuket 72: Phuket leads by 67 points.
Nature & outdoors. Goreme 74, Phuket 80: Phuket leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Goreme 70, Phuket 45: Goreme leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Goreme 40, Phuket 65: Phuket leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Goreme 40, Phuket 22: Goreme leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Goreme 22, Phuket 42: Phuket leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Goreme 58, Phuket 68: Phuket leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Goreme 10, Phuket 20: Phuket leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Goreme 42, Phuket 82: Phuket leads by 40 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Goreme and Phuket.

Your match

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

Goreme
36match

Wins on day trips and getting around with your weighting.

Phuket
Best match
57match

Wins on beaches 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.

Goreme in July

30 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
13 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 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
GoremePhuket

Where the figures come from

Goreme's station stands 160 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer 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. Goreme: 1991-2020 normals, Nevsehir (10.2 km from centre). Phuket: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1961-1990) normals, Phuket Airport (26.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGoremePhuket
Official languageTurkishThai
CurrencyTurkish Lira (TRY)Baht (THB)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+7
Emergency number112Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation1,100 m19 m
Main airportKayseri Erkilet International Airport (ASR)60 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days-

By the numbers

MeasureGoremePhuket
City population2,00077,610
People per km²206,468
Museums within 10 km52
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Goreme 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.