VacationSelector
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills

Photos: Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0; Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Phuket or Puerto Vallarta?

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
  • prices
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Puerto Vallarta for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Puerto Vallarta’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, Puerto Vallarta 85: Phuket leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Phuket 66, Puerto Vallarta 62: Phuket leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Phuket 35, Puerto Vallarta 28: Phuket leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Phuket 72, Puerto Vallarta 66: Phuket leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Phuket 80, Puerto Vallarta 76: Phuket leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Phuket 45, Puerto Vallarta 55: Puerto Vallarta leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Phuket and Puerto Vallarta are level on 65.
Getting around. Phuket 22, Puerto Vallarta 45: Puerto Vallarta leads by 23 points.
Shopping & style. Phuket and Puerto Vallarta are level on 42.
Affordability. Phuket 68, Puerto Vallarta 60: Phuket leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Phuket 20, Puerto Vallarta 32: Puerto Vallarta leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Phuket 82, Puerto Vallarta 52: Phuket leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Phuket and Puerto Vallarta.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Phuket
57match

Wins on wellness and prices with your weighting.

Puerto Vallarta
56match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts 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

Puerto Vallarta in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
209 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
PhuketPuerto Vallarta

Where the figures come from

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

Puerto Vallarta 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). Puerto Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasurePhuketPuerto Vallarta
Official languageThaiSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyBaht (THB)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199911
Elevation19 m101 m
Main airportPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-9 days

By the numbers

MeasurePhuketPuerto Vallarta
City population77,610224,166
People per km²6,4684,311
Museums within 10 km22
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Puerto Vallarta 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.