VacationSelector
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture

Photos: Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0; Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Phuket or Playa del Carmen?

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 Phuket for

  • wellness
  • culture and sights
  • prices

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

Choose Playa del Carmen for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Playa del Carmen’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. Phuket 90, Playa del Carmen 88: Phuket leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Phuket 66, Playa del Carmen 52: Phuket leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Phuket 35, Playa del Carmen 12: Phuket leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Phuket 72, Playa del Carmen 66: Phuket leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Phuket 80, Playa del Carmen 74: Phuket leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Phuket 45, Playa del Carmen 72: Playa del Carmen leads by 27 points.
Good for families. Phuket 65, Playa del Carmen 78: Playa del Carmen leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Phuket 22, Playa del Carmen 55: Playa del Carmen leads by 33 points.
Shopping & style. Phuket 42, Playa del Carmen 38: Phuket leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Phuket 68, Playa del Carmen 52: Phuket leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Phuket 20, Playa del Carmen 22: Playa del Carmen leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Phuket 82, Playa del Carmen 54: Phuket leads by 28 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Phuket and Playa del Carmen.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Phuket
57match

Wins on wellness and culture and sights with your weighting.

Playa del Carmen
55match

Wins on getting around and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Phuket in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
287 mmrain in the month
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Playa del Carmen in July

29 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
96 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
PhuketPlaya del Carmen

Where the figures come from

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

Playa del Carmen has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Phuket: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1961-1990) normals, Phuket Airport (26.9 km from centre). Playa del Carmen: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasurePhuketPlaya del Carmen
Official languageThaiSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyBaht (THB)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199911
Elevation19 m8 m
Main airportPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinationsCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-9 days

By the numbers

MeasurePhuketPlaya del Carmen
City population77,610304,942
People per km²6,468-
Museums within 10 km20
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 Phuket or Playa del Carmen somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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). 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.