VacationSelector
The white beach below the high-rise hotels, Orange Beach
Orange BeachThe white beach below the high-rise hotels
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket

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

Orange 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 Orange Beach for

  • live music and the arts
  • families
  • day trips

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

Choose Phuket for

  • wellness
  • nightlife
  • 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. Orange Beach 86, Phuket 90: Phuket leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Orange Beach 40, Phuket 66: Phuket leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Orange Beach 7, Phuket 35: Phuket leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Orange Beach 30, Phuket 72: Phuket leads by 42 points.
Nature & outdoors. Orange Beach 60, Phuket 80: Phuket leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Orange Beach 50, Phuket 45: Orange Beach leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Orange Beach 75, Phuket 65: Orange Beach leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Orange Beach 15, Phuket 22: Phuket leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Orange Beach 25, Phuket 42: Phuket leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Orange Beach 38, Phuket 68: Phuket leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Orange Beach 32, Phuket 20: Orange Beach leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Orange Beach 32, Phuket 82: Phuket leads by 50 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Orange Beach and Phuket.

Your match

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

Orange Beach
41match

Wins on live music and the arts and families with your weighting.

Phuket
Best match
57match

Wins on wellness and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Orange Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
200 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
Orange 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. Orange Beach: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Gulf Shores / Bay Village Mobile Home Park (10.5 km from centre). Phuket: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1961-1990) normals, Phuket Airport (26.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOrange BeachPhuket
Official language-Thai
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Baht (THB)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number911Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation4 m19 m
Main airportPensacola International Airport (PNS)41 km from centre27 non-stop destinationsPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureOrange BeachPhuket
City population8,09577,610
People per km²1966,468
Museums within 10 km02
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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