VacationSelector
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket
The Botanical Building, Balboa Park, San Diego
San DiegoThe Botanical Building, Balboa Park

Photos: Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0; San Diego by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Phuket or San Diego?

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

  • prices
  • wellness
  • nightlife

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

Choose San Diego for

  • live music and the arts
  • families
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on San Diego’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, San Diego 72: Phuket leads by 18 points.
Food & drink. Phuket 66, San Diego 62: Phuket leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Phuket 35, San Diego 50: San Diego leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Phuket 72, San Diego 48: Phuket leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Phuket 80, San Diego 77: Phuket leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Phuket 45, San Diego 60: San Diego leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Phuket 65, San Diego 96: San Diego leads by 31 points.
Getting around. Phuket 22, San Diego 38: San Diego leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Phuket 42, San Diego 44: San Diego leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Phuket 68, San Diego 26: Phuket leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Phuket 20, San Diego 56: San Diego leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Phuket 82, San Diego 45: Phuket leads by 37 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Phuket and San Diego.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Phuket
57match

Wins on prices and wellness with your weighting.

San Diego
56match

Wins on live music and the arts 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

San Diego in July

24 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
2 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
PhuketSan Diego

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). San Diego: 1991-2020 normals, San Diego International Airport (2.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePhuketSan Diego
Official languageThai-
CurrencyBaht (THB)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199911
Elevation19 m129 m
Main airportPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinationsSan Diego International Airport (SAN)3 km from centre87 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePhuketSan Diego
City population77,6101,386,932
People per km²6,4681,438
Museums within 10 km226
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months1 month

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Phuket or San Diego 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.