VacationSelector
Skiers at the Albion base of the ski area, Alta, Utah
Alta, UtahSkiers at the Albion base of the ski area
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city

Photos: Alta, Utah by Sumanch, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License.

Alta, Utah or Chiang Mai?

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 Alta, Utah for

  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Alta, Utah’s own page.

Choose Chiang Mai for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Chiang Mai’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. Alta, Utah 3, Chiang Mai 6: Chiang Mai leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. Alta, Utah 15, Chiang Mai 78: Chiang Mai leads by 63 points.
Culture & sights. Alta, Utah 5, Chiang Mai 65: Chiang Mai leads by 60 points.
Nightlife. Alta, Utah 4, Chiang Mai 45: Chiang Mai leads by 41 points.
Nature & outdoors. Alta, Utah 90, Chiang Mai 73: Alta, Utah leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Alta, Utah 40, Chiang Mai 48: Chiang Mai leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Alta, Utah 30, Chiang Mai 55: Chiang Mai leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Alta, Utah 35, Chiang Mai 38: Chiang Mai leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Alta, Utah 4, Chiang Mai 62: Chiang Mai leads by 58 points.
Affordability. Alta, Utah 15, Chiang Mai 90: Chiang Mai leads by 75 points.
Live music & performing arts. Alta, Utah 3, Chiang Mai 30: Chiang Mai leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Alta, Utah 35, Chiang Mai 82: Chiang Mai leads by 47 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Alta, Utah and Chiang Mai.

Your match

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

Alta, Utah
23match

Wins on nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Chiang Mai
Best match
56match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Alta, Utah in July

22 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Chiang Mai in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
153 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Alta, UtahChiang Mai

Where the figures come from

Alta, Utah has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Alta, Utah: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km. Chiang Mai: 1991-2020 normals, Chiang Mai (0.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAlta, UtahChiang Mai
Official language-Thai
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Baht (THB)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number911Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation2,610 m310 m
Main airportSalt Lake City International Airport (SLC)37 km from centre108 non-stop destinationsChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days-

By the numbers

MeasureAlta, UtahChiang Mai
City population2281,198,000
People per km²192,958
Museums within 10 km06
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Alta, Utah or Chiang Mai somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.