VacationSelector
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House

Photos: Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0; San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Phuket or San Jose?

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
  • prices

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

Choose San Jose for

  • day trips
  • live music and the arts
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on San Jose’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 Jose 30: Phuket leads by 60 points.
Food & drink. Phuket 66, San Jose 56: Phuket leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Phuket 35, San Jose 36: San Jose leads by 1 points.
Nightlife. Phuket 72, San Jose 33: Phuket leads by 39 points.
Nature & outdoors. Phuket 80, San Jose 72: Phuket leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Phuket 45, San Jose 78: San Jose leads by 33 points.
Good for families. Phuket and San Jose are level on 65.
Getting around. Phuket 22, San Jose 30: San Jose leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Phuket 42, San Jose 48: San Jose leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Phuket 68, San Jose 20: Phuket leads by 48 points.
Live music & performing arts. Phuket 20, San Jose 38: San Jose leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Phuket 82, San Jose 30: Phuket leads by 52 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Phuket and San Jose.

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.

San Jose
45match

Wins on day trips 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
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

San Jose in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
14 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
PhuketSan Jose

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 Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePhuketSan Jose
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 m25 m
Main airportPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinationsMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePhuketSan Jose
City population77,6101,013,240
People per km²6,4682,167
Museums within 10 km219
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 San Jose 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.