VacationSelector
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket
Punta del Este

Photos: Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0.

Phuket or Punta del Este?

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
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Punta del Este for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Punta del Este’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 del Este 72: Phuket leads by 18 points.
Food & drink. Phuket 66, Punta del Este 45: Phuket leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Phuket 35, Punta del Este 22: Phuket leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Phuket 72, Punta del Este 60: Phuket leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Phuket 80, Punta del Este 55: Phuket leads by 25 points.
Day trips. Phuket and Punta del Este are level on 45.
Good for families. Phuket 65, Punta del Este 55: Phuket leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Phuket 22, Punta del Este 35: Punta del Este leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Phuket and Punta del Este are level on 42.
Affordability. Phuket 68, Punta del Este 20: Phuket leads by 48 points.
Live music & performing arts. Phuket 20, Punta del Este 22: Punta del Este leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Phuket 82, Punta del Este 32: Phuket leads by 50 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Phuket and Punta del Este.

Your match

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

Phuket
Best match
57match

Wins on wellness and prices with your weighting.

Punta del Este
42match

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
No recordsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Punta del Este in July

15 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
101 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
PhuketPunta del Este

Where the figures come from

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

Punta del Este's temperatures are measured 79 km from the centre, at Rocha.

Punta del Este 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 del Este: 1991-2020 normals, Rocha (78.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePhuketPunta del Este
Official languageThai-
CurrencyBaht (THB)Peso Uruguayo (UYU)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzCFIL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-3
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199911
Elevation19 m11 m
Main airportPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinationsCapitan Corbeta CA Curbelo International Airport (PDP)18 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-15 days

By the numbers

MeasurePhuketPunta del Este
City population77,6109,277
People per km²6,468455
Museums within 10 km25
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Phuket or Punta del Este 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.