VacationSelector
Pulteney Bridge and the weir on the Avon, Bath
BathPulteney Bridge and the weir on the Avon
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city

Photos: Bath by Lucas Carlini, Pexels License; Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License.

Bath 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 Bath for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Chiang Mai for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

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. Bath 10, Chiang Mai 6: Bath leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Bath 44, Chiang Mai 78: Chiang Mai leads by 34 points.
Culture & sights. Bath 68, Chiang Mai 65: Bath leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Bath 30, Chiang Mai 45: Chiang Mai leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bath 58, Chiang Mai 73: Chiang Mai leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Bath 80, Chiang Mai 48: Bath leads by 32 points.
Good for families. Bath 50, Chiang Mai 55: Chiang Mai leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Bath 72, Chiang Mai 38: Bath leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. Bath 54, Chiang Mai 62: Chiang Mai leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Bath 27, Chiang Mai 90: Chiang Mai leads by 63 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bath 44, Chiang Mai 30: Bath leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bath 78, Chiang Mai 82: Chiang Mai leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bath and Chiang Mai.

Your match

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

Bath
51match

Wins on getting around and day trips with your weighting.

Chiang Mai
Best match
56match

Wins on prices 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.

Bath in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Chiang Mai in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
153 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
BathChiang Mai

Where the figures come from

Bath's temperatures are measured 29 km from the centre, at Lyneham.

Bath 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. Bath: 1991-2020 normals, Lyneham (29.2 km from centre). Chiang Mai: 1991-2020 normals, Chiang Mai (0.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBathChiang Mai
Official languageEnglishThai
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Baht (THB)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number112 or 999Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation132 m310 m
Main airportBristol Airport (BRS)25 km from centre117 non-stop destinationsChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days-

By the numbers

MeasureBathChiang Mai
City population94,0921,198,000
People per km²3,2452,958
Museums within 10 km176
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bath 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.