VacationSelector
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket
Ca' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay, Sarasota
SarasotaCa' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay

Photos: Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0; Sarasota by Oleg Yunakov, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Phuket or Sarasota?

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

  • nightlife
  • prices
  • wellness

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

Choose Sarasota for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Sarasota’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, Sarasota 86: Phuket leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Phuket 66, Sarasota 44: Phuket leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Phuket 35, Sarasota 45: Sarasota leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Phuket 72, Sarasota 28: Phuket leads by 44 points.
Nature & outdoors. Phuket 80, Sarasota 55: Phuket leads by 25 points.
Day trips. Phuket 45, Sarasota 50: Sarasota leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Phuket 65, Sarasota 68: Sarasota leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Phuket 22, Sarasota 28: Sarasota leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Phuket 42, Sarasota 40: Phuket leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Phuket 68, Sarasota 30: Phuket leads by 38 points.
Live music & performing arts. Phuket 20, Sarasota 58: Sarasota leads by 38 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Phuket 82, Sarasota 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 Sarasota.

Your match

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

Phuket
Best match
57match

Wins on nightlife and prices with your weighting.

Sarasota
48match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights 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

Sarasota in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
195 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
PhuketSarasota

Where the figures come from

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

Sarasota has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Sarasota's sunshine is measured 70 km from the centre, at Tampa International 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). Sarasota: 2006-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sarasota / Ballentine Manor (6.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePhuketSarasota
Official languageThai-
CurrencyBaht (THB)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199911
Elevation19 m7 m
Main airportPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinationsSarasota Bradenton International Airport (SRQ)7 km from centre70 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePhuketSarasota
City population77,61054,842
People per km²6,468840
Museums within 10 km23
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months8 months

Where else could you go?

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