VacationSelector
Turquoise water off Giftun Island, Hurghada
HurghadaTurquoise water off Giftun Island
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket

Photos: Hurghada by Andrey Korchagin, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0.

Hurghada 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 Hurghada for

  • prices

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

Choose Phuket for

  • wellness
  • food and drink
  • 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. Hurghada 84, Phuket 90: Phuket leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Hurghada 34, Phuket 66: Phuket leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Hurghada 14, Phuket 35: Phuket leads by 21 points.
Nightlife. Hurghada 40, Phuket 72: Phuket leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hurghada 72, Phuket 80: Phuket leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Hurghada 30, Phuket 45: Phuket leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Hurghada 62, Phuket 65: Phuket leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Hurghada and Phuket are level on 22.
Shopping & style. Hurghada 24, Phuket 42: Phuket leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Hurghada 80, Phuket 68: Hurghada leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hurghada 10, Phuket 20: Phuket leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hurghada 44, Phuket 82: Phuket leads by 38 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hurghada and Phuket.

Your match

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

Hurghada
43match

Wins on prices with your weighting.

Phuket
Best match
57match

Wins on wellness and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Hurghada in July

37 °Cdaytime high
28 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
14 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
HurghadaPhuket

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. Hurghada: 1991-2020 normals, Hurguada (15.2 km from centre). Phuket: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1961-1990) normals, Phuket Airport (26.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHurghadaPhuket
Official languageArabicThai
CurrencyEgyptian Pound (EGP)Baht (THB)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+7
Emergency numberPolice 122, ambulance 123, fire 180Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation11 m19 m
Main airportHurghada International Airport (HRG)9 km from centre111 non-stop destinationsPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days-

By the numbers

MeasureHurghadaPhuket
City population214,24777,610
People per km²-6,468
Museums within 10 km12
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Hurghada 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). 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.