VacationSelector
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket
The County Courthouse and its garden, Santa Barbara
Santa BarbaraThe County Courthouse and its garden

Photos: Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0; Santa Barbara by Warren LeMay, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Phuket or Santa Barbara?

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
  • nightlife
  • wellness

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

Choose Santa Barbara for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Santa Barbara’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, Santa Barbara 60: Phuket leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Phuket 66, Santa Barbara 62: Phuket leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Phuket 35, Santa Barbara 48: Santa Barbara leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Phuket 72, Santa Barbara 34: Phuket leads by 38 points.
Nature & outdoors. Phuket and Santa Barbara are level on 80.
Day trips. Phuket 45, Santa Barbara 55: Santa Barbara leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Phuket 65, Santa Barbara 64: Phuket leads by 1 points.
Getting around. Phuket 22, Santa Barbara 46: Santa Barbara leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Phuket 42, Santa Barbara 45: Santa Barbara leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Phuket 68, Santa Barbara 15: Phuket leads by 53 points.
Live music & performing arts. Phuket 20, Santa Barbara 50: Santa Barbara leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Phuket 82, Santa Barbara 50: Phuket leads by 32 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Phuket and Santa Barbara.

Your match

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

Phuket
Best match
57match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

Santa Barbara
51match

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

Santa Barbara in July

24 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
18 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
PhuketSanta Barbara

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). Santa Barbara: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Barbara / La Patera (11.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePhuketSanta Barbara
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 m15 m
Main airportPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinationsSanta Barbara Municipal Airport (SBA)12 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePhuketSanta Barbara
City population77,61088,665
People per km²6,468816
Museums within 10 km210
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 Santa Barbara 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.