VacationSelector
Senate Square and the statue of Alexander II, Helsinki
HelsinkiSenate Square and the statue of Alexander II
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket

Photos: Helsinki by Ximonic (Simo Räsänen), CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0.

Helsinki 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 Helsinki for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Phuket for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • nightlife

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. Helsinki 28, Phuket 90: Phuket leads by 62 points.
Food & drink. Helsinki 52, Phuket 66: Phuket leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Helsinki 60, Phuket 35: Helsinki leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Helsinki 50, Phuket 72: Phuket leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Helsinki 58, Phuket 80: Phuket leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Helsinki 62, Phuket 45: Helsinki leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Helsinki 76, Phuket 65: Helsinki leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Helsinki 86, Phuket 22: Helsinki leads by 64 points.
Shopping & style. Helsinki 62, Phuket 42: Helsinki leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Helsinki 30, Phuket 68: Phuket leads by 38 points.
Live music & performing arts. Helsinki 63, Phuket 20: Helsinki leads by 43 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Helsinki and Phuket are level on 82.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Helsinki 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

Helsinki
59match

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

Phuket
57match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Helsinki in July

22 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
58 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
18 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

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
HelsinkiPhuket

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. Helsinki: 1991-2020 normals, Helsinki Kaisaniemi / Harju (1.6 km from centre). Phuket: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1961-1990) normals, Phuket Airport (26.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHelsinkiPhuket
Official languageFinnish, SwedishThai
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Baht (THB)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number112Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation17 m19 m
Main airportHelsinki Vantaa Airport (HEL)16 km from centre136 non-stop destinationsPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days-

By the numbers

MeasureHelsinkiPhuket
City population694,39277,610
People per km²3,2396,468
Museums within 10 km742
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Helsinki 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.