VacationSelector
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket
The Assembly Hall on Temple Square, Salt Lake City
Salt Lake CityThe Assembly Hall on Temple Square

Photos: Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0; Salt Lake City by hakkun, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Phuket or Salt Lake City?

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

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • nightlife

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

Choose Salt Lake City for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Salt Lake City’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, Salt Lake City 12: Phuket leads by 78 points.
Food & drink. Phuket 66, Salt Lake City 40: Phuket leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Phuket 35, Salt Lake City 42: Salt Lake City leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Phuket 72, Salt Lake City 30: Phuket leads by 42 points.
Nature & outdoors. Phuket 80, Salt Lake City 90: Salt Lake City leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Phuket 45, Salt Lake City 34: Phuket leads by 11 points.
Good for families. Phuket 65, Salt Lake City 72: Salt Lake City leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Phuket 22, Salt Lake City 42: Salt Lake City leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Phuket 42, Salt Lake City 36: Phuket leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Phuket 68, Salt Lake City 40: Phuket leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Phuket 20, Salt Lake City 55: Salt Lake City leads by 35 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Phuket 82, Salt Lake City 38: Phuket leads by 44 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Phuket and Salt Lake City.

Your match

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

Phuket
Best match
57match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Salt Lake City
44match

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

Salt Lake City in July

34 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
PhuketSalt Lake City

Where the figures come from

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

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). Salt Lake City: 1991-2020 normals, Salt Lake City International Airport (7.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePhuketSalt Lake City
Official languageThai-
CurrencyBaht (THB)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199911
Elevation19 m1,288 m
Main airportPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinationsSalt Lake City International Airport (SLC)9 km from centre108 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-12 days

By the numbers

MeasurePhuketSalt Lake City
City population77,610199,723
People per km²6,468690
Museums within 10 km212
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Phuket or Salt Lake City 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.