VacationSelector
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket
Sugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de JaneiroSugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay

Photos: Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0; Rio de Janeiro by Arne Müseler, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, cropped.

Phuket or Rio de Janeiro?

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
  • families
  • prices

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

Choose Rio de Janeiro for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Rio de Janeiro’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, Rio de Janeiro 92: Rio de Janeiro leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Phuket 66, Rio de Janeiro 62: Phuket leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Phuket 35, Rio de Janeiro 68: Rio de Janeiro leads by 33 points.
Nightlife. Phuket 72, Rio de Janeiro 80: Rio de Janeiro leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Phuket 80, Rio de Janeiro 90: Rio de Janeiro leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Phuket 45, Rio de Janeiro 50: Rio de Janeiro leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Phuket 65, Rio de Janeiro 50: Phuket leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Phuket 22, Rio de Janeiro 44: Rio de Janeiro leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Phuket 42, Rio de Janeiro 50: Rio de Janeiro leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Phuket 68, Rio de Janeiro 60: Phuket leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Phuket 20, Rio de Janeiro 66: Rio de Janeiro leads by 46 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Phuket 82, Rio de Janeiro 30: Phuket leads by 52 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Phuket and Rio de Janeiro.

Your match

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

Phuket
57match

Wins on wellness and families with your weighting.

Rio de Janeiro
Best match
62match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights 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

Rio de Janeiro in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
45 mmrain in the month
22 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
PhuketRio de Janeiro

Where the figures come from

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

Rio de Janeiro 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). Rio de Janeiro: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasurePhuketRio de Janeiro
Official languageThaiPortuguese
CurrencyBaht (THB)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-3
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation19 m31 m
Main airportPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinationsRio de Janeiro Galeão – Tom Jobim International Airport (GIG)12 km from centre54 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-14 days

By the numbers

MeasurePhuketRio de Janeiro
City population77,6106,211,223
People per km²6,4684,930
Museums within 10 km269
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km03
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 Rio de Janeiro 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.