VacationSelector
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket
Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo
TokyoShibuya Crossing

Photos: Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0; Tokyo by Benh LIEU SONG, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Phuket or Tokyo?

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
  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Tokyo for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Tokyo’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, Tokyo 40: Phuket leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Phuket 66, Tokyo 98: Tokyo leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Phuket 35, Tokyo 84: Tokyo leads by 49 points.
Nightlife. Phuket 72, Tokyo 86: Tokyo leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Phuket 80, Tokyo 68: Phuket leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Phuket 45, Tokyo 85: Tokyo leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Phuket 65, Tokyo 95: Tokyo leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Phuket 22, Tokyo 98: Tokyo leads by 76 points.
Shopping & style. Phuket 42, Tokyo 99: Tokyo leads by 57 points.
Affordability. Phuket 68, Tokyo 48: Phuket leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Phuket 20, Tokyo 86: Tokyo leads by 66 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Phuket 82, Tokyo 78: Phuket leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Phuket and Tokyo.

Your match

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

Phuket
57match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Tokyo
Best match
80match

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

Tokyo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
157 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
PhuketTokyo

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). Tokyo: 1991-2020 normals, Tokyo (3.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePhuketTokyo
Official languageThaiJapanese
CurrencyBaht (THB)Yen (JPY)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+9
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199Police 110, fire 119
Elevation19 m6 m
Main airportPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinationsTokyo Haneda International Airport (HND)18 km from centre98 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-16 days

By the numbers

MeasurePhuketTokyo
City population77,61014,264,798
People per km²6,4686,501
Museums within 10 km2192
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months4 months

Where else could you go?

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