VacationSelector
Ross Castle on Lough Leane, Killarney
KillarneyRoss Castle on Lough Leane
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket

Photos: Killarney by NicholasH, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0.

Killarney 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 Killarney for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

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

Choose Phuket for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • 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. Killarney 22, Phuket 90: Phuket leads by 68 points.
Food & drink. Killarney 33, Phuket 66: Phuket leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. Killarney 28, Phuket 35: Phuket leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Killarney 32, Phuket 72: Phuket leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. Killarney 82, Phuket 80: Killarney leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Killarney 58, Phuket 45: Killarney leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Killarney 42, Phuket 65: Phuket leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Killarney 47, Phuket 22: Killarney leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Killarney 22, Phuket 42: Phuket leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Killarney 35, Phuket 68: Phuket leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Killarney 35, Phuket 20: Killarney leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Killarney 42, Phuket 82: Phuket leads by 40 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Killarney and Phuket.

Your match

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

Killarney
40match

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

Phuket
Best match
57match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Killarney in July

18 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
88 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
15 °Csea
16 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
KillarneyPhuket

Where the figures come from

Killarney's temperatures are measured 53 km from the centre, at Valentia Observatory.

Killarney 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. Killarney: 1991-2020 normals, Valentia Observatory (52.7 km from centre). Phuket: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1961-1990) normals, Phuket Airport (26.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKillarneyPhuket
Official languageEnglish, IrishThai
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Baht (THB)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number112Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation50 m19 m
Main airportKerry Airport (KIR)14 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureKillarneyPhuket
City population14,41277,610
People per km²-6,468
Museums within 10 km12
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Killarney 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.