VacationSelector
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket
Palms on a white beach at Cap Cana, Punta Cana
Punta CanaPalms on a white beach at Cap Cana

Photos: Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0; Punta Cana by Mary Mark Ockerbloom, CC0.

Phuket or Punta Cana?

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

  • food and drink
  • nightlife
  • wellness

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

Choose Punta Cana for

  • beaches
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Punta Cana’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, Punta Cana 94: Punta Cana leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Phuket 66, Punta Cana 30: Phuket leads by 36 points.
Culture & sights. Phuket 35, Punta Cana 8: Phuket leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Phuket 72, Punta Cana 40: Phuket leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Phuket 80, Punta Cana 52: Phuket leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Phuket 45, Punta Cana 35: Phuket leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Phuket 65, Punta Cana 68: Punta Cana leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Phuket 22, Punta Cana 15: Phuket leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Phuket 42, Punta Cana 30: Phuket leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Phuket 68, Punta Cana 44: Phuket leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Phuket 20, Punta Cana 15: Phuket leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Phuket 82, Punta Cana 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 Punta Cana.

Your match

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

Phuket
Best match
57match

Wins on food and drink and nightlife with your weighting.

Punta Cana
40match

Wins on beaches and families 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

Punta Cana in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
96 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
PhuketPunta Cana

Where the figures come from

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

Punta Cana has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

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). Punta Cana: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Punta Cana (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePhuketPunta Cana
Official languageThaiSpanish
CurrencyBaht (THB)Dominican Peso (DOP)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-4
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199911
Elevation19 m28 m
Main airportPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinationsPunta Cana International Airport (PUJ)1 km from centre93 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePhuketPunta Cana
City population77,610138,919
People per km²6,468292
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 Punta Cana 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. 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.