VacationSelector
A boat in the swell beside El Arco, Los Cabos
Los CabosA boat in the swell beside El Arco
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket

Photos: Los Cabos by Jules Clark, Pexels License; Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0.

Los Cabos 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 Los Cabos for

  • getting around

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

Choose Phuket for

  • prices
  • wellness
  • culture and sights

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. Los Cabos 84, Phuket 90: Phuket leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Los Cabos 54, Phuket 66: Phuket leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Los Cabos 20, Phuket 35: Phuket leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Los Cabos 66, Phuket 72: Phuket leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Los Cabos 78, Phuket 80: Phuket leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Los Cabos 42, Phuket 45: Phuket leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Los Cabos 55, Phuket 65: Phuket leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Los Cabos 28, Phuket 22: Los Cabos leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Los Cabos 36, Phuket 42: Phuket leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Los Cabos 28, Phuket 68: Phuket leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Los Cabos 12, Phuket 20: Phuket leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Los Cabos 58, Phuket 82: Phuket leads by 24 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Los Cabos
47match

Wins on getting around with your weighting.

Phuket
Best match
57match

Wins on prices and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Los Cabos in July

30 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
19 mmrain in the month
26 °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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Los CabosPhuket

Where the figures come from

Los Cabos 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. Los Cabos: 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

MeasureLos CabosPhuket
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaThai
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Baht (THB)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-7UTC+7
Emergency number911Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation11 m19 m
Main airportLos Cabos International Airport (SJD)35 km from centre54 non-stop destinationsPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days-

By the numbers

MeasureLos CabosPhuket
City population202,69477,610
People per km²-6,468
Museums within 10 km12
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 Los Cabos 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). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.