VacationSelector
The opera house on Place de la Comédie, Montpellier
MontpellierThe opera house on Place de la Comédie
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket

Photos: Montpellier by Peter, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0.

Montpellier 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 Montpellier for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Montpellier’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. Montpellier 64, Phuket 90: Phuket leads by 26 points.
Food & drink. Montpellier 64, Phuket 66: Phuket leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Montpellier 60, Phuket 35: Montpellier leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Montpellier 56, Phuket 72: Phuket leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montpellier 72, Phuket 80: Phuket leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Montpellier 85, Phuket 45: Montpellier leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Montpellier 62, Phuket 65: Phuket leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Montpellier 74, Phuket 22: Montpellier leads by 52 points.
Shopping & style. Montpellier 47, Phuket 42: Montpellier leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Montpellier 50, Phuket 68: Phuket leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montpellier 63, Phuket 20: Montpellier leads by 43 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montpellier 42, Phuket 82: Phuket leads by 40 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Montpellier
Best match
62match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts 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.

Montpellier in July

30 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
17 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
21 °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
MontpellierPhuket

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. Montpellier: 1991-2020 normals, Montpellier (7.8 km from centre). Phuket: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1961-1990) normals, Phuket Airport (26.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontpellierPhuket
Official languageFrenchThai
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Baht (THB)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number112Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation7 m19 m
Main airportMontpellier-Méditerranée Airport (MPL)8 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureMontpellierPhuket
City population310,24077,610
People per km²5,4526,468
Museums within 10 km142
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Montpellier 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.