VacationSelector
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket
Palms at CityPlace on Rosemary Avenue, West Palm Beach
West Palm BeachPalms at CityPlace on Rosemary Avenue

Photos: Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0; West Palm Beach by Michael Rivera, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Phuket or West Palm 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

  • prices
  • wellness
  • nightlife

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

Choose West Palm Beach for

  • live music and the arts
  • shopping
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on West Palm 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, West Palm Beach 80: Phuket leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Phuket 66, West Palm Beach 52: Phuket leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Phuket 35, West Palm Beach 42: West Palm Beach leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Phuket 72, West Palm Beach 36: Phuket leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Phuket 80, West Palm Beach 58: Phuket leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Phuket 45, West Palm Beach 55: West Palm Beach leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Phuket 65, West Palm Beach 66: West Palm Beach leads by 1 points.
Getting around. Phuket 22, West Palm Beach 38: West Palm Beach leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Phuket 42, West Palm Beach 64: West Palm Beach leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Phuket 68, West Palm Beach 23: Phuket leads by 45 points.
Live music & performing arts. Phuket 20, West Palm Beach 47: West Palm Beach leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Phuket 82, West Palm Beach 44: Phuket leads by 38 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Phuket and West Palm Beach.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Phuket
Best match
57match

Wins on prices and wellness with your weighting.

West Palm Beach
50match

Wins on live music and the arts and shopping 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

West Palm Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
145 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
PhuketWest Palm 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). West Palm Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Palm Beach International (5.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePhuketWest Palm 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 m6 m
Main airportPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinationsPresident Donald J. Trump International Airport (DJT)6 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePhuketWest Palm Beach
City population77,610117,415
People per km²6,468786
Museums within 10 km24
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Phuket or West Palm 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.