VacationSelector
Bougainvillea and the dome of Agia Napa Cathedral, Limassol
LimassolBougainvillea and the dome of Agia Napa Cathedral
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket

Photos: Limassol by Julian Lupyan, CC0; Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0.

Limassol 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 Limassol for

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

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

Choose Phuket for

  • wellness
  • prices
  • nightlife

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. Limassol 77, Phuket 90: Phuket leads by 13 points.
Food & drink. Limassol 58, Phuket 66: Phuket leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Limassol 38, Phuket 35: Limassol leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Limassol 50, Phuket 72: Phuket leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Limassol 65, Phuket 80: Phuket leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Limassol 76, Phuket 45: Limassol leads by 31 points.
Good for families. Limassol 63, Phuket 65: Phuket leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Limassol 38, Phuket 22: Limassol leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Limassol and Phuket are level on 42.
Affordability. Limassol 44, Phuket 68: Phuket leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Limassol 32, Phuket 20: Limassol leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Limassol 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: Limassol and Phuket.

Your match

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

Limassol
52match

Wins on day trips and getting around with your weighting.

Phuket
Best match
57match

Wins on wellness 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.

Limassol in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
13 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
14 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
LimassolPhuket

Where the figures come from

Limassol 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.

Limassol's sunshine is measured 59 km from the centre, at Larnaca Airport.

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

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Limassol: 1998-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Akrotiri (11.6 km from centre). Phuket: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1961-1990) normals, Phuket Airport (26.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLimassolPhuket
Official languageTurkish, Greek, Modern GreekThai
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Baht (THB)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number112Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation10 m19 m
Main airportLarnaca International Airport (LCA)58 km from centre112 non-stop destinationsPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days-

By the numbers

MeasureLimassolPhuket
City population107,97077,610
People per km²2,4056,468
Museums within 10 km22
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Limassol or Phuket somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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. 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.