VacationSelector
The junk Duk Ling in Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong
Hong KongThe junk Duk Ling in Victoria Harbour
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket

Photos: Hong Kong by LN9267, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0.

Hong Kong 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 Hong Kong for

  • getting around
  • shopping
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Phuket for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • wellness

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. Hong Kong 50, Phuket 90: Phuket leads by 40 points.
Food & drink. Hong Kong 90, Phuket 66: Hong Kong leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Hong Kong 60, Phuket 35: Hong Kong leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Hong Kong 68, Phuket 72: Phuket leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hong Kong and Phuket are level on 80.
Day trips. Hong Kong 68, Phuket 45: Hong Kong leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Hong Kong 75, Phuket 65: Hong Kong leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Hong Kong 97, Phuket 22: Hong Kong leads by 75 points.
Shopping & style. Hong Kong 88, Phuket 42: Hong Kong leads by 46 points.
Affordability. Hong Kong 27, Phuket 68: Phuket leads by 41 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hong Kong 55, Phuket 20: Hong Kong leads by 35 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hong Kong 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: Hong Kong and Phuket.

Your match

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

Hong Kong
Best match
67match

Wins on getting around and shopping with your weighting.

Phuket
57match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Hong Kong in July

31 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
381 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 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

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Hong KongPhuket

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. Hong Kong: 1991-2020 normals, King's Park (4.4 km from centre). Phuket: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1961-1990) normals, Phuket Airport (26.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHong KongPhuket
Official languageStandard ChineseThai
CurrencyHong Kong Dollar (HKD)Baht (THB)
SocketsG220 V, 50 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+7
Emergency number999Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation7 m19 m
Main airportHong Kong International Airport (HKG)25 km from centre148 non-stop destinationsPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days-

By the numbers

MeasureHong KongPhuket
City population7,413,07077,610
People per km²-6,468
Museums within 10 km392
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Hong Kong 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.