VacationSelector
The Georgia State Capitol, Atlanta
AtlantaThe Georgia State Capitol
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city

Photos: Atlanta by DXR, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License.

Atlanta 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 Atlanta for

  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife
  • families

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

Choose Chiang Mai for

  • prices
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Atlanta 10, Chiang Mai 6: Atlanta leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Atlanta 68, Chiang Mai 78: Chiang Mai leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Atlanta 55, Chiang Mai 65: Chiang Mai leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Atlanta 65, Chiang Mai 45: Atlanta leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Atlanta 60, Chiang Mai 73: Chiang Mai leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Atlanta 52, Chiang Mai 48: Atlanta leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Atlanta 70, Chiang Mai 55: Atlanta leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Atlanta 28, Chiang Mai 38: Chiang Mai leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Atlanta 50, Chiang Mai 62: Chiang Mai leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Atlanta 40, Chiang Mai 90: Chiang Mai leads by 50 points.
Live music & performing arts. Atlanta 62, Chiang Mai 30: Atlanta leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Atlanta 33, Chiang Mai 82: Chiang Mai leads by 49 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Atlanta and Chiang Mai.

Your match

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

Atlanta
49match

Wins on live music and the arts and nightlife with your weighting.

Chiang Mai
Best match
56match

Wins on prices and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Atlanta in July

32 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
120 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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
AtlantaChiang Mai

Where the figures come from

Atlanta 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. Atlanta: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Atlanta / Carroll Heights (12.5 km from centre). Chiang Mai: 1991-2020 normals, Chiang Mai (0.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAtlantaChiang Mai
Official language-Thai
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Baht (THB)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number911Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation225 m310 m
Main airportHartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL)14 km from centre238 non-stop destinationsChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days-

By the numbers

MeasureAtlantaChiang Mai
City population498,7151,198,000
People per km²1,4332,958
Museums within 10 km276
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 Atlanta 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). 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. 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.