VacationSelector
A yellow tram in a narrow street, Lisbon
LisbonA yellow tram in a narrow street
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket

Photos: Lisbon by Riccardo Toso, Pexels License; Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0.

Lisbon 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 Lisbon for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Phuket for

  • wellness
  • beaches
  • prices

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. Lisbon 50, Phuket 90: Phuket leads by 40 points.
Food & drink. Lisbon 75, Phuket 66: Lisbon leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Lisbon 78, Phuket 35: Lisbon leads by 43 points.
Nightlife. Lisbon 75, Phuket 72: Lisbon leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lisbon 75, Phuket 80: Phuket leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Lisbon 82, Phuket 45: Lisbon leads by 37 points.
Good for families. Lisbon 62, Phuket 65: Phuket leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Lisbon 66, Phuket 22: Lisbon leads by 44 points.
Shopping & style. Lisbon 60, Phuket 42: Lisbon leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Lisbon 55, Phuket 68: Phuket leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lisbon 60, Phuket 20: Lisbon leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lisbon 36, Phuket 82: Phuket leads by 46 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lisbon and Phuket.

Your match

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

Lisbon
Best match
65match

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

Phuket
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.

Lisbon in July

28 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
3 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
15 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
LisbonPhuket

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. Lisbon: 1991-2020 normals, Lisboa / Geof (1.1 km from centre). Phuket: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1961-1990) normals, Phuket Airport (26.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLisbonPhuket
Official languagePortugueseThai
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Baht (THB)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number112Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation100 m19 m
Main airportLisbon Humberto Delgado Airport (LIS)7 km from centre156 non-stop destinationsPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days-

By the numbers

MeasureLisbonPhuket
City population545,79677,610
People per km²5,4536,468
Museums within 10 km802
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
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 Lisbon 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.