VacationSelector
The fountain on Plaza Mayor, Lima
LimaThe fountain on Plaza Mayor
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket

Photos: Lima by James C., CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0.

Lima 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 Lima for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

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

Choose Phuket for

  • wellness
  • 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. Lima 42, Phuket 90: Phuket leads by 48 points.
Food & drink. Lima 88, Phuket 66: Lima leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Lima 66, Phuket 35: Lima leads by 31 points.
Nightlife. Lima 62, Phuket 72: Phuket leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lima 45, Phuket 80: Phuket leads by 35 points.
Day trips. Lima 34, Phuket 45: Phuket leads by 11 points.
Good for families. Lima 42, Phuket 65: Phuket leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Lima 35, Phuket 22: Lima leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Lima 52, Phuket 42: Lima leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Lima 70, Phuket 68: Lima leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lima 53, Phuket 20: Lima leads by 33 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lima 25, Phuket 82: Phuket leads by 57 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lima and Phuket.

Your match

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

Lima
51match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights with your weighting.

Phuket
Best match
57match

Wins on wellness 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.

Lima in July

19 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
1 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
12 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
LimaPhuket

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. Lima: 1991-2020 normals, Lima-Callao / Aerop. Internacional Jorgechavez (10.9 km from centre). Phuket: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1961-1990) normals, Phuket Airport (26.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLimaPhuket
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaThai
CurrencySol (PEN)Baht (THB)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+7
Emergency number111 or 911Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation154 m19 m
Main airportJorge Chávez International Airport (LIM)9 km from centre61 non-stop destinationsPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days-

By the numbers

MeasureLimaPhuket
City population9,943,80077,610
People per km²3,7216,468
Museums within 10 km472
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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