VacationSelector
Whitehall, Henry Flagler's mansion, now the Flagler Museum, Palm Beach
Palm BeachWhitehall, Henry Flagler's mansion, now the Flagler Museum
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket

Photos: Palm Beach by Khowald, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0.

Palm 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 Palm Beach for

  • live music and the arts
  • shopping
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Phuket for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • 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. Palm Beach 82, Phuket 90: Phuket leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Palm Beach 47, Phuket 66: Phuket leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Palm Beach 45, Phuket 35: Palm Beach leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Palm Beach 32, Phuket 72: Phuket leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. Palm Beach 58, Phuket 80: Phuket leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Palm Beach 55, Phuket 45: Palm Beach leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Palm Beach 62, Phuket 65: Phuket leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Palm Beach 32, Phuket 22: Palm Beach leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Palm Beach 66, Phuket 42: Palm Beach leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Palm Beach 12, Phuket 68: Phuket leads by 56 points.
Live music & performing arts. Palm Beach 45, Phuket 20: Palm Beach leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Palm Beach 55, Phuket 82: Phuket leads by 27 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Palm Beach and Phuket.

Your match

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

Palm Beach
49match

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

Phuket
Best match
57match

Wins on prices 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.

Palm Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
145 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
Palm 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. Palm Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Palm Beach International (6.8 km from centre). Phuket: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1961-1990) normals, Phuket Airport (26.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePalm BeachPhuket
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 airportPresident Donald J. Trump International Airport (DJT)6 km from centre42 non-stop destinationsPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasurePalm BeachPhuket
City population9,24577,610
People per km²3226,468
Museums within 10 km42
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 Palm 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.