VacationSelector
Wat Pho, Bangkok
BangkokWat Pho
Korenlei reflected in the Leie, Ghent
GhentKorenlei reflected in the Leie

Photos: Bangkok by Lu Zhao, Pexels License; Ghent by ykeiko, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Bangkok or Ghent?

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

  • prices
  • wellness
  • food and drink

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

Choose Ghent for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Ghent’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, Ghent 25: Ghent leads by 13 points.
Food & drink. Bangkok 95, Ghent 62: Bangkok leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. Bangkok 80, Ghent 72: Bangkok leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Bangkok 85, Ghent 55: Bangkok leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bangkok 25, Ghent 35: Ghent leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Bangkok 72, Ghent 88: Ghent leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Bangkok and Ghent are level on 50.
Getting around. Bangkok 50, Ghent 78: Ghent leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. Bangkok 80, Ghent 50: Bangkok leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Bangkok 85, Ghent 38: Bangkok leads by 47 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bangkok 52, Ghent 60: Ghent leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bangkok 75, Ghent 33: Bangkok leads by 42 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Bangkok
Best match
63match

Wins on prices and wellness with your weighting.

Ghent
54match

Wins on getting around and day trips 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

Ghent in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
77 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
BangkokGhent

Where the figures come from

Ghent 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.

Ghent's sunshine is measured 45 km from the centre, at Vlissingen.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bangkok: 1991-2020 normals, Bangkok (5.7 km from centre). Ghent: 2009-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Melle / Kalverhaag (10.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBangkokGhent
Official languageThaiFrench, German, Dutch
CurrencyBaht (THB)Euro (EUR)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199112
Elevation2 m12 m
Main airportSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)26 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsBrussels Airport (BRU)56 km from centre191 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-14 days

By the numbers

MeasureBangkokGhent
City population5,676,648272,657
People per km²3,6191,728
Museums within 10 km5930
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km05
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bangkok or Ghent 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.