VacationSelector
Seven Mile Beach, Negril
NegrilSeven Mile Beach
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket

Photos: Negril by gustavo.kunst, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0.

Negril 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 Negril for

  • live music and the arts
  • getting around
  • beaches

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

Choose Phuket for

  • nightlife
  • food and drink
  • wellness

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. Negril 93, Phuket 90: Negril leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. Negril 36, Phuket 66: Phuket leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Negril 8, Phuket 35: Phuket leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Negril 40, Phuket 72: Phuket leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Negril 60, Phuket 80: Phuket leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Negril 35, Phuket 45: Phuket leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Negril 45, Phuket 65: Phuket leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Negril 30, Phuket 22: Negril leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Negril 15, Phuket 42: Phuket leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Negril 44, Phuket 68: Phuket leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Negril 33, Phuket 20: Negril leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Negril 52, Phuket 82: Phuket leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Negril and Phuket.

Your match

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

Negril
41match

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

Phuket
Best match
57match

Wins on nightlife and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Negril in July

34 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
174 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 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
NegrilPhuket

Where the figures come from

Negril's temperatures are measured 52 km from the centre, at Montego Bay / Sangster.

Negril has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Phuket's temperatures are measured 27 km from the centre, at Phuket Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Negril: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (51.8 km from centre). Phuket: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1961-1990) normals, Phuket Airport (26.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNegrilPhuket
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican PatoisThai
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)Baht (THB)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+7
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation10 m19 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)52 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days-

By the numbers

MeasureNegrilPhuket
City population4,50077,610
People per km²-6,468
Museums within 10 km02
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 Negril 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). 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.