VacationSelector
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket
The top of the Mountaintop Express lift on Vail Mountain, Vail
VailThe top of the Mountaintop Express lift on Vail Mountain

Photos: Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0; Vail by DReifGalaxyM31, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Phuket or Vail?

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
  • nightlife

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

Choose Vail for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Vail’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, Vail 5: Phuket leads by 85 points.
Food & drink. Phuket 66, Vail 35: Phuket leads by 31 points.
Culture & sights. Phuket 35, Vail 10: Phuket leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Phuket 72, Vail 30: Phuket leads by 42 points.
Nature & outdoors. Phuket 80, Vail 92: Vail leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Phuket and Vail are level on 45.
Good for families. Phuket 65, Vail 55: Phuket leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Phuket 22, Vail 62: Vail leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Phuket 42, Vail 35: Phuket leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Phuket 68, Vail 5: Phuket leads by 63 points.
Live music & performing arts. Phuket 20, Vail 42: Vail leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Phuket 82, Vail 48: Phuket leads by 34 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Phuket
Best match
57match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Vail
39match

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
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Vail in July

29 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
35 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
PhuketVail

Where the figures come from

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

Vail's temperatures are measured 47 km from the centre, at Kremmling.

Vail's station stands 186 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Vail 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.

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). Vail: 2006-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Kremmling (46.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePhuketVail
Official languageThai-
CurrencyBaht (THB)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199911
Elevation19 m2,445 m
Main airportPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinationsEagle County Regional Airport (EGE)48 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-12 days

By the numbers

MeasurePhuketVail
City population77,6104,835
People per km²6,468400
Museums within 10 km21
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 Vail 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.