VacationSelector
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket
The British Columbia Parliament Buildings, Victoria
VictoriaThe British Columbia Parliament Buildings

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

Phuket or Victoria?

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
  • nightlife
  • prices

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

Choose Victoria for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Victoria’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, Victoria 28: Phuket leads by 62 points.
Food & drink. Phuket 66, Victoria 50: Phuket leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Phuket 35, Victoria 42: Victoria leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Phuket 72, Victoria 30: Phuket leads by 42 points.
Nature & outdoors. Phuket 80, Victoria 77: Phuket leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Phuket 45, Victoria 54: Victoria leads by 9 points.
Good for families. Phuket 65, Victoria 62: Phuket leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Phuket 22, Victoria 60: Victoria leads by 38 points.
Shopping & style. Phuket 42, Victoria 40: Phuket leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Phuket 68, Victoria 34: Phuket leads by 34 points.
Live music & performing arts. Phuket 20, Victoria 40: Victoria leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Phuket 82, Victoria 48: Phuket leads by 34 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Phuket and Victoria.

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 nightlife with your weighting.

Victoria
47match

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

Victoria in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
11 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
PhuketVictoria

Where the figures come from

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

Victoria's sunshine is measured 87 km from the centre, at Vancouver 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). Victoria: 1991-2020 normals, Victoria Gonzales CS (3.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePhuketVictoria
Official languageThaiFrench, English
CurrencyBaht (THB)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199911
Elevation19 m23 m
Main airportPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinationsVictoria International Airport (YYJ)25 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePhuketVictoria
City population77,61091,867
People per km²6,4684,711
Museums within 10 km26
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Victoria 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.