VacationSelector
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket
The beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier, Virginia Beach
Virginia BeachThe beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier

Photos: Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0; Virginia Beach by SchuminWeb, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Phuket or Virginia Beach?

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
  • nightlife
  • prices

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

Choose Virginia Beach for

  • day trips
  • live music and the arts
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Virginia Beach’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, Virginia Beach 77: Phuket leads by 13 points.
Food & drink. Phuket 66, Virginia Beach 42: Phuket leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Phuket 35, Virginia Beach 30: Phuket leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Phuket 72, Virginia Beach 37: Phuket leads by 35 points.
Nature & outdoors. Phuket 80, Virginia Beach 56: Phuket leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Phuket 45, Virginia Beach 64: Virginia Beach leads by 19 points.
Good for families. Phuket 65, Virginia Beach 75: Virginia Beach leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Phuket 22, Virginia Beach 27: Virginia Beach leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Phuket 42, Virginia Beach 32: Phuket leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Phuket 68, Virginia Beach 40: Phuket leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Phuket 20, Virginia Beach 38: Virginia Beach leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Phuket 82, Virginia Beach 32: Phuket leads by 50 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Phuket and Virginia Beach.

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 nightlife with your weighting.

Virginia Beach
46match

Wins on day trips 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

Virginia Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
152 mmrain in the month
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
PhuketVirginia Beach

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). Virginia Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Virginia Beach / Gatewood Park (5.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePhuketVirginia Beach
Official languageThai-
CurrencyBaht (THB)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199911
Elevation19 m7 m
Main airportPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinationsNorfolk International Airport (ORF)20 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePhuketVirginia Beach
City population77,610459,470
People per km²6,468-
Museums within 10 km22
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Virginia Beach 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.