VacationSelector
The Royal Palace, Madrid
MadridThe Royal Palace
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket

Photos: Madrid by Mert Ocak, Pexels License; Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0.

Madrid 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 Madrid for

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

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

Choose Phuket for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • 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. Madrid 5, Phuket 90: Phuket leads by 85 points.
Food & drink. Madrid 80, Phuket 66: Madrid leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Madrid 86, Phuket 35: Madrid leads by 51 points.
Nightlife. Madrid 85, Phuket 72: Madrid leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Madrid 60, Phuket 80: Phuket leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Madrid 89, Phuket 45: Madrid leads by 44 points.
Good for families. Madrid 68, Phuket 65: Madrid leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Madrid 84, Phuket 22: Madrid leads by 62 points.
Shopping & style. Madrid 75, Phuket 42: Madrid leads by 33 points.
Affordability. Madrid 50, Phuket 68: Phuket leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Madrid 77, Phuket 20: Madrid leads by 57 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Madrid 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: Madrid and Phuket.

Your match

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

Madrid
Best match
66match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Phuket
57match

Wins on beaches 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.

Madrid in July

33 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
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
MadridPhuket

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. Madrid: 1991-2020 normals, Madrid (1.7 km from centre). Phuket: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1961-1990) normals, Phuket Airport (26.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMadridPhuket
Official languageSpanishThai
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Baht (THB)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number112Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation663 m19 m
Main airportAdolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre239 non-stop destinationsPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days-

By the numbers

MeasureMadridPhuket
City population3,506,73077,610
People per km²5,8016,468
Museums within 10 km882
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km40
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Madrid 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.