VacationSelector
Wat Pho, Bangkok
BangkokWat Pho
The Dutch Reformed Church in Galle Fort, Galle
GalleThe Dutch Reformed Church in Galle Fort

Photos: Bangkok by Lu Zhao, Pexels License; Galle by Francisco Anzola, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Bangkok or Galle?

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 Bangkok for

  • nightlife
  • shopping
  • food and drink

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

Choose Galle for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Galle’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. Bangkok 12, Galle 80: Galle leads by 68 points.
Food & drink. Bangkok 95, Galle 50: Bangkok leads by 45 points.
Culture & sights. Bangkok 80, Galle 55: Bangkok leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Bangkok 85, Galle 18: Bangkok leads by 67 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bangkok 25, Galle 66: Galle leads by 41 points.
Day trips. Bangkok 72, Galle 50: Bangkok leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Bangkok 50, Galle 42: Bangkok leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Bangkok 50, Galle 35: Bangkok leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Bangkok 80, Galle 33: Bangkok leads by 47 points.
Affordability. Bangkok 85, Galle 72: Bangkok leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bangkok 52, Galle 10: Bangkok leads by 42 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bangkok 75, Galle 70: Bangkok leads by 5 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bangkok and Galle.

Your match

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

Bangkok
Best match
63match

Wins on nightlife and shopping with your weighting.

Galle
48match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Bangkok in July

34 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
184 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Galle in July

28 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
116 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
BangkokGalle

Where the figures come from

Galle 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. Bangkok: 1991-2020 normals, Bangkok (5.7 km from centre). Galle: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureBangkokGalle
Official languageThaiTamil, Sinhala
CurrencyBaht (THB)Sri Lanka Rupee (LKR)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzGM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+5:30
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199Police 119, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation2 m0 m
Main airportSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)26 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)133 km from centre56 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasureBangkokGalle
City population5,676,64893,118
People per km²3,619-
Museums within 10 km592
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bangkok or Galle 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.