VacationSelector
Wat Pho, Bangkok
BangkokWat Pho
Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan, New York
New YorkBrooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan

Photos: Bangkok by Lu Zhao, Pexels License; New York by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Bangkok or New York?

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
  • day trips

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

Choose New York for

  • live music and the arts
  • beaches
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on New York’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, New York 50: New York leads by 38 points.
Food & drink. Bangkok 95, New York 92: Bangkok leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Bangkok 80, New York 89: New York leads by 9 points.
Nightlife. Bangkok 85, New York 97: New York leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bangkok 25, New York 55: New York leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Bangkok 72, New York 68: Bangkok leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Bangkok 50, New York 70: New York leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Bangkok 50, New York 82: New York leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. Bangkok 80, New York 97: New York leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Bangkok 85, New York 12: Bangkok leads by 73 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bangkok 52, New York 99: New York leads by 47 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bangkok 75, New York 42: Bangkok leads by 33 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bangkok and New York.

Your match

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

Bangkok
63match

Wins on prices and wellness with your weighting.

New York
Best match
71match

Wins on live music and the arts and beaches 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

New York in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
107 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
22 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
BangkokNew York

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bangkok: 1991-2020 normals, Bangkok (5.7 km from centre). New York: 1991-2020 normals, LaGuardia Airport (12.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBangkokNew York
Official languageThai-
CurrencyBaht (THB)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199911
Elevation2 m25 m
Main airportSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)26 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsJohn F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)21 km from centre189 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBangkokNew York
City population5,676,6488,804,190
People per km²3,6197,256
Museums within 10 km59157
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bangkok or New York 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. 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.