Kuala Lumpur or Phuket?

705 km apart, in Malaysia and Thailand. Each is scored month by month on the same ten years of climate readings, the public holidays that crowd it, and what the flight costs. This is where they part, and when.

• Kuala Lumpur Malaysia · best Jun, Jul
• Phuket Thailand · best Feb, Mar, Apr

Month by month

Each cell is that destination's own verdict for the month — sweet spot, ok or avoid — with its typical daily high and its rainy days ("11d"). The pick goes to the better verdict; with the same verdict, to the higher score, unless the two are within a whisker of each other, when it is either. A month both would avoid is neither. A dot marks a busy month. Fares are the typical return from Bengaluru, in INR.

Before you go

• Cost of living — Kuala Lumpur: very cheap, about 32% of the United States; Phuket: very cheap, about 31% of the United States.
• Currency — Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian ringgit; Phuket: Baht.
• Plugs — Kuala Lumpur: type G, 240 V; Phuket: type A and B and C and F, 220 V.
• Driving — Kuala Lumpur: on the left; Phuket: on the left.
• Travel advice — Kuala Lumpur: avoid all but essential travel to parts; Phuket: avoid all but essential travel to parts.

Facts from Wikidata (CC0), the UK Foreign Office (Open Government Licence) and the World Bank. The advisory is written for British travellers; entry rules depend on your passport.

Between them

705 km as the crow flies, about 1h 47m in the air.Nonstop, about 8 a day · 3 airlines. By road, 1,031 km and about 12h 11m.

The flight time is estimated from the distance. A road, train or bus is named only where it was measured — flights from AeroDataBox, roads from OpenRouteService, timetables via Transitous — and none of it is a fare; the searches on each destination's page are where prices live.

Also compared

• Kuala Lumpur or Bali
• Kuala Lumpur or Bangkok
• Kuala Lumpur or Da Nang
• Kuala Lumpur or Hanoi
• Kuala Lumpur or Ho Chi Minh City
• Kuala Lumpur or Singapore
• Phuket or Bali
• Phuket or Bangkok
• Phuket or Da Nang
• Phuket or Hanoi
• Phuket or Ho Chi Minh City
• Phuket or Singapore

Every verdict here is the destination's own: ten years of climate readings, the public holidays that crowd it, and what the flight costs. The comparison is the difference between two pages, not a third opinion.