VacationSelector
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket
Victoria Falls and its gorge from a helicopter, Victoria Falls
Victoria FallsVictoria Falls and its gorge from a helicopter

Photos: Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0; Victoria Falls by Murray Foubister, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Phuket or Victoria Falls?

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
  • wellness

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

Choose Victoria Falls for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Victoria Falls’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 Falls 7: Phuket leads by 83 points.
Food & drink. Phuket 66, Victoria Falls 24: Phuket leads by 42 points.
Culture & sights. Phuket 35, Victoria Falls 12: Phuket leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Phuket 72, Victoria Falls 8: Phuket leads by 64 points.
Nature & outdoors. Phuket 80, Victoria Falls 94: Victoria Falls leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Phuket 45, Victoria Falls 22: Phuket leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Phuket 65, Victoria Falls 38: Phuket leads by 27 points.
Getting around. Phuket 22, Victoria Falls 45: Victoria Falls leads by 23 points.
Shopping & style. Phuket 42, Victoria Falls 18: Phuket leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Phuket 68, Victoria Falls 32: Phuket leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. Phuket 20, Victoria Falls 10: Phuket leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Phuket 82, Victoria Falls 34: Phuket leads by 48 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Phuket and Victoria Falls.

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 Falls
29match

Wins on getting around and nature and the outdoors 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

Victoria Falls in July

26 °Cdaytime high
8 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
PhuketVictoria Falls

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). Victoria Falls: 1991-2020 normals, Livingstone (13.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePhuketVictoria Falls
Official languageThaiEnglish, Xhosa, Ndau, Venda, Chewa, Khoisan, Kalanga, Shona, Tonga, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Northern Ndebele, Nambya, Zimbabwe Sign Language, Barwe
CurrencyBaht (THB)Zimbabwe Gold (ZWG)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzG220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+2
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199999
Elevation19 m961 m
Main airportPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinationsVictoria Falls International Airport (VFA)18 km from centre12 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePhuketVictoria Falls
City population77,61033,060
People per km²6,468-
Museums within 10 km22
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 Victoria Falls 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.