VacationSelector
The twin towers of the cathedral over Plaza de Armas, Guadalajara
GuadalajaraThe twin towers of the cathedral over Plaza de Armas
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket

Photos: Guadalajara by Ponchomx, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0.

Guadalajara 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 Guadalajara for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose Phuket for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Guadalajara 5, Phuket 90: Phuket leads by 85 points.
Food & drink. Guadalajara 75, Phuket 66: Guadalajara leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Guadalajara 62, Phuket 35: Guadalajara leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Guadalajara 68, Phuket 72: Phuket leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Guadalajara 55, Phuket 80: Phuket leads by 25 points.
Day trips. Guadalajara 66, Phuket 45: Guadalajara leads by 21 points.
Good for families. Guadalajara 55, Phuket 65: Phuket leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Guadalajara 40, Phuket 22: Guadalajara leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Guadalajara 60, Phuket 42: Guadalajara leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Guadalajara 78, Phuket 68: Guadalajara leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Guadalajara 60, Phuket 20: Guadalajara leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Guadalajara 35, Phuket 82: Phuket leads by 47 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Guadalajara and Phuket.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Guadalajara
55match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights with your weighting.

Phuket
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.

Guadalajara in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
205 mmrain in the month
No seasea
13 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
GuadalajaraPhuket

Where the figures come from

Guadalajara has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Phuket's temperatures are measured 27 km from the centre, at Phuket Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Guadalajara: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Phuket: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1961-1990) normals, Phuket Airport (26.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGuadalajaraPhuket
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaThai
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Baht (THB)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+7
Emergency number911Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation1,536 m19 m
Main airportGuadalajara International Airport (GDL)17 km from centre70 non-stop destinationsPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days-

By the numbers

MeasureGuadalajaraPhuket
City population1,385,62177,610
People per km²9,5566,468
Museums within 10 km172
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
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 Guadalajara or Phuket somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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.