VacationSelector
The arch at the entrance to the boardwalk, Ocean City, Maryland
Ocean City, MarylandThe arch at the entrance to the boardwalk
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket

Photos: Ocean City, Maryland by Dough4872, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0.

Ocean City, Maryland 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 Ocean City, Maryland for

  • families
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Ocean City, Maryland’s own page.

Choose Phuket for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Ocean City, Maryland 78, Phuket 90: Phuket leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Ocean City, Maryland 40, Phuket 66: Phuket leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Ocean City, Maryland 14, Phuket 35: Phuket leads by 21 points.
Nightlife. Ocean City, Maryland 45, Phuket 72: Phuket leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ocean City, Maryland 50, Phuket 80: Phuket leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Ocean City, Maryland 42, Phuket 45: Phuket leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Ocean City, Maryland 78, Phuket 65: Ocean City, Maryland leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Ocean City, Maryland 34, Phuket 22: Ocean City, Maryland leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Ocean City, Maryland 24, Phuket 42: Phuket leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Ocean City, Maryland 40, Phuket 68: Phuket leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ocean City, Maryland 18, Phuket 20: Phuket leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ocean City, Maryland 22, Phuket 82: Phuket leads by 60 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ocean City, Maryland and Phuket.

Your match

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

Ocean City, Maryland
40match

Wins on families and getting around with your weighting.

Phuket
Best match
57match

Wins on wellness and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Ocean City, Maryland in July

29 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
96 mmrain in the month
24 °Csea
15 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
Ocean City, MarylandPhuket

Where the figures come from

Ocean City, Maryland 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. Ocean City, Maryland: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Ocean City / Morris Mobile Home Park (10.2 km from centre). Phuket: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1961-1990) normals, Phuket Airport (26.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOcean City, MarylandPhuket
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
Elevation2 m19 m
Main airportSalisbury Ocean City Wicomico Regional Airport (SBY)39 km from centre4 non-stop destinationsPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days-

By the numbers

MeasureOcean City, MarylandPhuket
City population6,84477,610
People per km²736,468
Museums within 10 km02
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Ocean City, Maryland 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.