VacationSelector
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Phuket or Wellington?

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
  • wellness
  • prices

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

Choose Wellington for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Wellington’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, Wellington 33: Phuket leads by 57 points.
Food & drink. Phuket 66, Wellington 62: Phuket leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Phuket 35, Wellington 44: Wellington leads by 9 points.
Nightlife. Phuket 72, Wellington 45: Phuket leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Phuket 80, Wellington 78: Phuket leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Phuket 45, Wellington 40: Phuket leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Phuket 65, Wellington 62: Phuket leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Phuket 22, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 46 points.
Shopping & style. Phuket and Wellington are level on 42.
Affordability. Phuket 68, Wellington 33: Phuket leads by 35 points.
Live music & performing arts. Phuket 20, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Phuket 82, Wellington 30: Phuket leads by 52 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Phuket and Wellington.

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 wellness with your weighting.

Wellington
49match

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

Wellington in July

12 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
111 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
PhuketWellington

Where the figures come from

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

Wellington's sunshine is measured 47 km from the centre, at Paraparaumu Aerodrome.

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). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePhuketWellington
Official languageThaiEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyBaht (THB)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199111
Elevation19 m0 m
Main airportPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-12 days

By the numbers

MeasurePhuketWellington
City population77,610216,200
People per km²6,468487
Museums within 10 km212
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 Wellington 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.