VacationSelector
Shitennō-ji temple, Osaka
OsakaShitennō-ji temple
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket

Photos: Osaka by Sarmat Batagov, Pexels License; Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0.

Osaka 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 Osaka for

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

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

Choose Phuket for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Osaka 34, Phuket 90: Phuket leads by 56 points.
Food & drink. Osaka 91, Phuket 66: Osaka leads by 25 points.
Culture & sights. Osaka 63, Phuket 35: Osaka leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Osaka 80, Phuket 72: Osaka leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Osaka 58, Phuket 80: Phuket leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Osaka 97, Phuket 45: Osaka leads by 52 points.
Good for families. Osaka 88, Phuket 65: Osaka leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Osaka 90, Phuket 22: Osaka leads by 68 points.
Shopping & style. Osaka 80, Phuket 42: Osaka leads by 38 points.
Affordability. Osaka 60, Phuket 68: Phuket leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Osaka 66, Phuket 20: Osaka leads by 46 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Osaka 66, Phuket 82: Phuket leads by 16 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Osaka and Phuket.

Your match

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

Osaka
Best match
73match

Wins on getting around and day trips with your weighting.

Phuket
57match

Wins on beaches 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.

Osaka in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
175 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 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
OsakaPhuket

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. Osaka: 1991-2020 normals, Osaka (1.8 km from centre). Phuket: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1961-1990) normals, Phuket Airport (26.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOsakaPhuket
Official languageJapaneseThai
CurrencyYen (JPY)Baht (THB)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+9UTC+7
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation20 m19 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)38 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days-

By the numbers

MeasureOsakaPhuket
City population2,751,86277,610
People per km²12,3406,468
Museums within 10 km442
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km60
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Osaka 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.