VacationSelector
The Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua, Antigua Guatemala
Antigua GuatemalaThe Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city

Photos: Antigua Guatemala by Chad Davis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License.

Antigua Guatemala 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 Antigua Guatemala for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Chiang Mai for

  • wellness
  • food and drink
  • prices

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. Antigua Guatemala and Chiang Mai are level on 6.
Food & drink. Antigua Guatemala 48, Chiang Mai 78: Chiang Mai leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Antigua Guatemala 68, Chiang Mai 65: Antigua Guatemala leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Antigua Guatemala 34, Chiang Mai 45: Chiang Mai leads by 11 points.
Nature & outdoors. Antigua Guatemala 78, Chiang Mai 73: Antigua Guatemala leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Antigua Guatemala 55, Chiang Mai 48: Antigua Guatemala leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Antigua Guatemala 38, Chiang Mai 55: Chiang Mai leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Antigua Guatemala 60, Chiang Mai 38: Antigua Guatemala leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Antigua Guatemala 45, Chiang Mai 62: Chiang Mai leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Antigua Guatemala 67, Chiang Mai 90: Chiang Mai leads by 23 points.
Live music & performing arts. Antigua Guatemala 22, Chiang Mai 30: Chiang Mai leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Antigua Guatemala 42, Chiang Mai 82: Chiang Mai leads by 40 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Antigua Guatemala and Chiang Mai.

Your match

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

Antigua Guatemala
47match

Wins on getting around and day trips with your weighting.

Chiang Mai
Best match
56match

Wins on wellness 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.

Antigua Guatemala in July

25 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
188 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Antigua GuatemalaChiang Mai

Where the figures come from

Antigua Guatemala 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. Antigua Guatemala: 1998-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Guatemala Aeropuertola Aurora (23.5 km from centre). Chiang Mai: 1991-2020 normals, Chiang Mai (0.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaChiang Mai
Official languageSpanishThai
CurrencyQuetzal (GTQ)Baht (THB)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+7
Emergency numberPolice 110/120, ambulance 128, fire 123Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation1,582 m310 m
Main airportLa Aurora International Airport (GUA)22 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaChiang Mai
City population59,0911,198,000
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 Antigua Guatemala 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). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.