VacationSelector
Skiers among snow-covered firs, Beaver Creek
Beaver CreekSkiers among snow-covered firs
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city

Photos: Beaver Creek by Joe Lin, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License.

Beaver Creek 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 Beaver Creek for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • getting around

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

Choose Chiang Mai for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

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. Beaver Creek and Chiang Mai are level on 6.
Food & drink. Beaver Creek 38, Chiang Mai 78: Chiang Mai leads by 40 points.
Culture & sights. Beaver Creek 7, Chiang Mai 65: Chiang Mai leads by 58 points.
Nightlife. Beaver Creek 12, Chiang Mai 45: Chiang Mai leads by 33 points.
Nature & outdoors. Beaver Creek 90, Chiang Mai 73: Beaver Creek leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Beaver Creek 40, Chiang Mai 48: Chiang Mai leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Beaver Creek 62, Chiang Mai 55: Beaver Creek leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Beaver Creek 45, Chiang Mai 38: Beaver Creek leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Beaver Creek 22, Chiang Mai 62: Chiang Mai leads by 40 points.
Affordability. Beaver Creek 5, Chiang Mai 90: Chiang Mai leads by 85 points.
Live music & performing arts. Beaver Creek 36, Chiang Mai 30: Beaver Creek leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Beaver Creek 55, Chiang Mai 82: Chiang Mai leads by 27 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Beaver Creek and Chiang Mai.

Your match

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

Beaver Creek
35match

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

Chiang Mai
Best match
56match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Beaver Creek in July

29 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
31 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
15 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
Beaver CreekChiang Mai

Where the figures come from

Beaver Creek's temperatures are measured 34 km from the centre, at Eagle County / Gypsum.

Beaver Creek's station stands 268 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Beaver Creek 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. Beaver Creek: 1992-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Eagle County / Gypsum (33.8 km from centre). Chiang Mai: 1991-2020 normals, Chiang Mai (0.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBeaver CreekChiang Mai
Official language-Thai
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Baht (THB)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number911Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation2,264 m310 m
Main airportEagle County Regional Airport (EGE)34 km from centre16 non-stop destinationsChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days-

By the numbers

MeasureBeaver CreekChiang Mai
City population-1,198,000
People per km²-2,958
Museums within 10 km06
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 Beaver Creek or Chiang Mai somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.