VacationSelector
The Qasr al-Farid tomb at Hegra near AlUla, AlUla
AlUlaThe Qasr al-Farid tomb at Hegra near AlUla
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city

Photos: AlUla by Richard.hargas, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License.

AlUla 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 AlUla for

  • culture and sights

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

Choose Chiang Mai for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • shopping

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. AlUla 3, Chiang Mai 6: Chiang Mai leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. AlUla 28, Chiang Mai 78: Chiang Mai leads by 50 points.
Culture & sights. AlUla 70, Chiang Mai 65: AlUla leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. AlUla 5, Chiang Mai 45: Chiang Mai leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. AlUla 72, Chiang Mai 73: Chiang Mai leads by 1 points.
Day trips. AlUla 20, Chiang Mai 48: Chiang Mai leads by 28 points.
Good for families. AlUla 35, Chiang Mai 55: Chiang Mai leads by 20 points.
Getting around. AlUla 15, Chiang Mai 38: Chiang Mai leads by 23 points.
Shopping & style. AlUla 15, Chiang Mai 62: Chiang Mai leads by 47 points.
Affordability. AlUla 18, Chiang Mai 90: Chiang Mai leads by 72 points.
Live music & performing arts. AlUla 28, Chiang Mai 30: Chiang Mai leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. AlUla 45, Chiang Mai 82: Chiang Mai leads by 37 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: AlUla and Chiang Mai.

Your match

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

AlUla
30match

Wins on culture and sights 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.

AlUla in July

43 °Cdaytime high
28 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
14 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

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
AlUlaChiang Mai

Where the figures come from

AlUla 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. AlUla: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Alula / Al ‘Ulá (23.7 km from centre). Chiang Mai: 1991-2020 normals, Chiang Mai (0.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAlUlaChiang Mai
Official languageArabicThai
CurrencySaudi Riyal (SAR)Baht (THB)
SocketsG60 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+7
Emergency number112 or 911Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation692 m310 m
Main airportAl-Ula International Airport (ULH)24 km from centre8 non-stop destinationsChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasureAlUlaChiang Mai
City population32,4131,198,000
People per km²-2,958
Museums within 10 km26
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10

Where else could you go?

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

Browse every destination

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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.