VacationSelector
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Phuket or Valparaiso?

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
  • beaches
  • families

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Valparaiso’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, Valparaiso 36: Phuket leads by 54 points.
Food & drink. Phuket 66, Valparaiso 50: Phuket leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Phuket 35, Valparaiso 62: Valparaiso leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Phuket 72, Valparaiso 56: Phuket leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Phuket 80, Valparaiso 60: Phuket leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Phuket 45, Valparaiso 63: Valparaiso leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Phuket 65, Valparaiso 33: Phuket leads by 32 points.
Getting around. Phuket 22, Valparaiso 44: Valparaiso leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Phuket 42, Valparaiso 30: Phuket leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Phuket 68, Valparaiso 60: Phuket leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Phuket 20, Valparaiso 38: Valparaiso leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Phuket 82, Valparaiso 18: Phuket leads by 64 points.
0255075100

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

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 beaches with your weighting.

Valparaiso
46match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around 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

Valparaiso in July

15 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
71 mmrain in the month
13 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
PhuketValparaiso

Where the figures come from

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

Valparaiso 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). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePhuketValparaiso
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 m21 m
Main airportPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-16 days

By the numbers

MeasurePhuketValparaiso
City population77,610296,655
People per km²6,4686,180
Museums within 10 km217
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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