VacationSelector
A purple lifeguard tower on South Beach, Miami Beach
Miami BeachA purple lifeguard tower on South Beach
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket

Photos: Miami Beach by Radomianin, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0.

Miami Beach 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 Miami Beach for

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

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

Choose Phuket for

  • prices
  • 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. Miami Beach 92, Phuket 90: Miami Beach leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Miami Beach 62, Phuket 66: Phuket leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Miami Beach 52, Phuket 35: Miami Beach leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Miami Beach 80, Phuket 72: Miami Beach leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Miami Beach 52, Phuket 80: Phuket leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Miami Beach 55, Phuket 45: Miami Beach leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Miami Beach 60, Phuket 65: Phuket leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Miami Beach 58, Phuket 22: Miami Beach leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Miami Beach 55, Phuket 42: Miami Beach leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Miami Beach 20, Phuket 68: Phuket leads by 48 points.
Live music & performing arts. Miami Beach 55, Phuket 20: Miami Beach leads by 35 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Miami Beach 48, Phuket 82: Phuket leads by 34 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Miami Beach and Phuket.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Miami Beach
57match

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

Phuket
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.

Miami Beach in July

33 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
186 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
14 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
Miami BeachPhuket

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. Miami Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Miami International Airport (18.8 km from centre). Phuket: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1961-1990) normals, Phuket Airport (26.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMiami BeachPhuket
Official language-Thai
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Baht (THB)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number911Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation1 m19 m
Main airportMiami International Airport (MIA)16 km from centre198 non-stop destinationsPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureMiami BeachPhuket
City population82,89077,610
People per km²2,1096,468
Museums within 10 km142
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 Miami Beach 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). 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. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.