VacationSelector
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket
York Minster from the city walls, York
YorkYork Minster from the city walls

Photos: Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0; York by PAUL FARMER, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Phuket or York?

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 York for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on York’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, York 14: Phuket leads by 76 points.
Food & drink. Phuket 66, York 42: Phuket leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Phuket 35, York 70: York leads by 35 points.
Nightlife. Phuket 72, York 36: Phuket leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Phuket 80, York 62: Phuket leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Phuket 45, York 80: York leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Phuket 65, York 60: Phuket leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Phuket 22, York 72: York leads by 50 points.
Shopping & style. Phuket 42, York 46: York leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Phuket 68, York 38: Phuket leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Phuket 20, York 38: York leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Phuket 82, York 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 York.

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.

York
49match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights 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

York in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
PhuketYork

Where the figures come from

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

York has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

York's sunshine is measured 48 km from the centre, at Leeming.

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). York: 1991-2020 normals, Linton-On-Ouse (14.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePhuketYork
Official languageThaiEnglish
CurrencyBaht (THB)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+7UTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199112 or 999
Elevation19 m25 m
Main airportPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinationsLeeds Bradford Airport (LBA)39 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-8 days

By the numbers

MeasurePhuketYork
City population77,610208,400
People per km²6,468766
Museums within 10 km224
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
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 York 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.