VacationSelector
The Santa Cruz Cathedral Basilica in Fort Kochi, Kochi
KochiThe Santa Cruz Cathedral Basilica in Fort Kochi
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket

Photos: Kochi by Vis M, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0.

Kochi 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 Kochi for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • prices

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

Choose Phuket for

  • nightlife
  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Kochi 38, Phuket 90: Phuket leads by 52 points.
Food & drink. Kochi and Phuket are level on 66.
Culture & sights. Kochi 62, Phuket 35: Kochi leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Kochi 18, Phuket 72: Phuket leads by 54 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kochi 55, Phuket 80: Phuket leads by 25 points.
Day trips. Kochi 52, Phuket 45: Kochi leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Kochi 40, Phuket 65: Phuket leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Kochi 44, Phuket 22: Kochi leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Kochi 45, Phuket 42: Kochi leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Kochi 88, Phuket 68: Kochi leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kochi 40, Phuket 20: Kochi leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kochi 70, Phuket 82: Phuket leads by 12 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Kochi
52match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around with your weighting.

Phuket
Best match
57match

Wins on nightlife 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.

Kochi in July

27 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
439 mmrain in the month
27 °Csea
13 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

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
KochiPhuket

Where the figures come from

Kochi has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

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

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Kochi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Phuket: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1961-1990) normals, Phuket Airport (26.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKochiPhuket
Official languageHindi, EnglishThai
CurrencyIndian Rupee (INR)Baht (THB)
SocketsCM230 V, 50 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+5:30UTC+7
Emergency number108 or 112Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation0 m19 m
Main airportCochin International Airport (COK)24 km from centre36 non-stop destinationsPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasureKochiPhuket
City population677,38177,610
People per km²7,1386,468
Museums within 10 km42
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 Kochi or Phuket somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.