VacationSelector
The golden Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem
JerusalemThe golden Dome of the Rock
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket

Photos: Jerusalem by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License; Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0.

Jerusalem 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 Jerusalem for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • getting around

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

Choose Phuket for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • 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. Jerusalem 40, Phuket 90: Phuket leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Jerusalem and Phuket are level on 66.
Culture & sights. Jerusalem 92, Phuket 35: Jerusalem leads by 57 points.
Nightlife. Jerusalem 38, Phuket 72: Phuket leads by 34 points.
Nature & outdoors. Jerusalem 60, Phuket 80: Phuket leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Jerusalem 80, Phuket 45: Jerusalem leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Jerusalem 52, Phuket 65: Phuket leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Jerusalem 55, Phuket 22: Jerusalem leads by 33 points.
Shopping & style. Jerusalem 48, Phuket 42: Jerusalem leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Jerusalem 20, Phuket 68: Phuket leads by 48 points.
Live music & performing arts. Jerusalem 40, Phuket 20: Jerusalem leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Jerusalem 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: Jerusalem and Phuket.

Your match

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

Jerusalem
53match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips with your weighting.

Phuket
Best match
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.

Jerusalem in July

30 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
27 °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
JerusalemPhuket

Where the figures come from

Jerusalem has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

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

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Jerusalem: 1991-2020 normals, Jerusalem (1.8 km from centre). Phuket: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1961-1990) normals, Phuket Airport (26.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJerusalemPhuket
Official languageHebrewThai
CurrencyNew Israeli Sheqel (ILS)Baht (THB)
SocketsCHM230 V, 50 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+7
Emergency numberPolice 100, fire 102Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation754 m19 m
Main airportBen Gurion International Airport (TLV)42 km from centre111 non-stop destinationsPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasureJerusalemPhuket
City population1,050,15177,610
People per km²8,3746,468
Museums within 10 km692
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km70
Swim season, months above 21 °C7 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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