VacationSelector
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket
The terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía, Santiago
SantiagoThe terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía

Photos: Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0; Santiago by Rjcastillo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Phuket or Santiago?

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 Santiago for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Santiago’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, Santiago 12: Phuket leads by 78 points.
Food & drink. Phuket 66, Santiago 60: Phuket leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Phuket 35, Santiago 52: Santiago leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Phuket 72, Santiago 60: Phuket leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Phuket 80, Santiago 83: Santiago leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Phuket 45, Santiago 70: Santiago leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Phuket 65, Santiago 57: Phuket leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Phuket 22, Santiago 68: Santiago leads by 46 points.
Shopping & style. Phuket 42, Santiago 52: Santiago leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Phuket 68, Santiago 58: Phuket leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Phuket 20, Santiago 55: Santiago leads by 35 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Phuket 82, Santiago 37: Phuket leads by 45 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Phuket
57match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Santiago
55match

Wins on getting around 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
No recordsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Santiago in July

14 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
52 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
PhuketSantiago

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). Santiago: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago Q. Normal (3.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePhuketSantiago
Official languageThaiSpanish
CurrencyBaht (THB)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation19 m575 m
Main airportPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)14 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-16 days

By the numbers

MeasurePhuketSantiago
City population77,6106,257,516
People per km²6,4687,468
Museums within 10 km254
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 Santiago 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.