VacationSelector
The Blue Mosque, Istanbul
IstanbulThe Blue Mosque
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket

Photos: Istanbul by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0.

Istanbul 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 Istanbul for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Phuket for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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. Istanbul 45, Phuket 90: Phuket leads by 45 points.
Food & drink. Istanbul 87, Phuket 66: Istanbul leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Istanbul 90, Phuket 35: Istanbul leads by 55 points.
Nightlife. Istanbul 77, Phuket 72: Istanbul leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Istanbul 52, Phuket 80: Phuket leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Istanbul 55, Phuket 45: Istanbul leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Istanbul 55, Phuket 65: Phuket leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Istanbul 62, Phuket 22: Istanbul leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Istanbul 86, Phuket 42: Istanbul leads by 44 points.
Affordability. Istanbul 60, Phuket 68: Phuket leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Istanbul 62, Phuket 20: Istanbul leads by 42 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Istanbul 75, Phuket 82: Phuket leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Istanbul and Phuket.

Your match

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

Istanbul
Best match
67match

Wins on culture and sights and shopping with your weighting.

Phuket
57match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Istanbul in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
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
IstanbulPhuket

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. Istanbul: 1991-2020 normals, Istanbul / Goztepe (9.9 km from centre). Phuket: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1961-1990) normals, Phuket Airport (26.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureIstanbulPhuket
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
Elevation100 m19 m
Main airportİstanbul Airport (IST)36 km from centre343 non-stop destinationsPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days-

By the numbers

MeasureIstanbulPhuket
City population15,655,92477,610
People per km²2,9306,468
Museums within 10 km732
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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