VacationSelector
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket
The Christuskirche among palms, Windhoek
WindhoekThe Christuskirche among palms

Photos: Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0; Windhoek by Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Phuket or Windhoek?

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
  • nightlife

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

Choose Windhoek for

Windhoek does not lead in any category we score.

What lies behind each score is written up on Windhoek’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, Windhoek 4: Phuket leads by 86 points.
Food & drink. Phuket 66, Windhoek 36: Phuket leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Phuket 35, Windhoek 30: Phuket leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Phuket 72, Windhoek 25: Phuket leads by 47 points.
Nature & outdoors. Phuket 80, Windhoek 52: Phuket leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Phuket 45, Windhoek 14: Phuket leads by 31 points.
Good for families. Phuket 65, Windhoek 30: Phuket leads by 35 points.
Getting around. Phuket and Windhoek are level on 22.
Shopping & style. Phuket 42, Windhoek 30: Phuket leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Phuket 68, Windhoek 62: Phuket leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Phuket 20, Windhoek 18: Phuket leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Phuket 82, Windhoek 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 Windhoek.

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.

Windhoek
29match

Has no clear advantage with the weighting you have chosen.

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

Windhoek in July

22 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
1 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
PhuketWindhoek

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). Windhoek: 1991-2020 normals, Windhoek (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePhuketWindhoek
Official languageThaiEnglish
CurrencyBaht (THB)Namibia Dollar (NAD)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzM220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+2
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199112
Elevation19 m1,650 m
Main airportPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinationsHosea Kutako International Airport (WDH)41 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePhuketWindhoek
City population77,610486,169
People per km²6,46895
Museums within 10 km25
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 Windhoek 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.