VacationSelector
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket
The old Tampa Bay Hotel across the river, Tampa
TampaThe old Tampa Bay Hotel across the river

Photos: Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0; Tampa by Ken Lund, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Phuket or Tampa?

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

  • wellness
  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Tampa for

  • live music and the arts
  • families
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Tampa’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, Tampa 70: Phuket leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. Phuket 66, Tampa 57: Phuket leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Phuket 35, Tampa 42: Tampa leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Phuket 72, Tampa 52: Phuket leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Phuket 80, Tampa 55: Phuket leads by 25 points.
Day trips. Phuket 45, Tampa 54: Tampa leads by 9 points.
Good for families. Phuket 65, Tampa 78: Tampa leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Phuket and Tampa are level on 22.
Shopping & style. Phuket 42, Tampa 40: Phuket leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Phuket 68, Tampa 40: Phuket leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Phuket 20, Tampa 47: Tampa leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Phuket 82, Tampa 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 Tampa.

Your match

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

Phuket
Best match
57match

Wins on wellness and prices with your weighting.

Tampa
49match

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
No recordsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Tampa in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
197 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
PhuketTampa

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). Tampa: 1991-2020 normals, Tampa International Airport (7.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePhuketTampa
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 m30 m
Main airportPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinationsTampa International Airport (TPA)8 km from centre101 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePhuketTampa
City population77,610384,959
People per km²6,468848
Museums within 10 km26
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 Tampa 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.