VacationSelector
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket
The old Bath House in the Government Gardens, Rotorua
RotoruaThe old Bath House in the Government Gardens

Photos: Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0; Rotorua by W. Bulach, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Phuket or Rotorua?

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

  • nightlife
  • beaches
  • food and drink

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

Choose Rotorua for

  • live music and the arts
  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Rotorua’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, Rotorua 33: Phuket leads by 57 points.
Food & drink. Phuket 66, Rotorua 33: Phuket leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. Phuket 35, Rotorua 38: Rotorua leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Phuket 72, Rotorua 14: Phuket leads by 58 points.
Nature & outdoors. Phuket 80, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Phuket and Rotorua are level on 45.
Good for families. Phuket 65, Rotorua 68: Rotorua leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Phuket 22, Rotorua 30: Rotorua leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Phuket 42, Rotorua 22: Phuket leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Phuket 68, Rotorua 36: Phuket leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Phuket 20, Rotorua 30: Rotorua leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Phuket 82, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 4 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Phuket
Best match
57match

Wins on nightlife and beaches with your weighting.

Rotorua
43match

Wins on live music and the arts and getting around 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

Rotorua in July

11 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
113 mmrain in the month
15 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
PhuketRotorua

Where the figures come from

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

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

Before you go

MeasurePhuketRotorua
Official languageThaiEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyBaht (THB)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199111
Elevation19 m280 m
Main airportPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinationsRotorua Regional Airport (ROT)7 km from centre3 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-12 days

By the numbers

MeasurePhuketRotorua
City population77,61058,500
People per km²6,46822
Museums within 10 km21
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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