VacationSelector
The beach with its parasols and the boardwalk, Bethany Beach
Bethany BeachThe beach with its parasols and the boardwalk
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city

Photos: Bethany Beach by Doug Olson, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License.

Bethany Beach 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 Bethany Beach for

  • beaches
  • families

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

Choose Chiang Mai for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • wellness

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. Bethany Beach 72, Chiang Mai 6: Bethany Beach leads by 66 points.
Food & drink. Bethany Beach 35, Chiang Mai 78: Chiang Mai leads by 43 points.
Culture & sights. Bethany Beach 10, Chiang Mai 65: Chiang Mai leads by 55 points.
Nightlife. Bethany Beach 12, Chiang Mai 45: Chiang Mai leads by 33 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bethany Beach 48, Chiang Mai 73: Chiang Mai leads by 25 points.
Day trips. Bethany Beach 45, Chiang Mai 48: Chiang Mai leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Bethany Beach 66, Chiang Mai 55: Bethany Beach leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Bethany Beach 33, Chiang Mai 38: Chiang Mai leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Bethany Beach 28, Chiang Mai 62: Chiang Mai leads by 34 points.
Affordability. Bethany Beach 30, Chiang Mai 90: Chiang Mai leads by 60 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bethany Beach 14, Chiang Mai 30: Chiang Mai leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bethany Beach 33, Chiang Mai 82: Chiang Mai leads by 49 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bethany Beach and Chiang Mai.

Your match

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

Bethany Beach
36match

Wins on beaches 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.

Bethany Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
95 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
23 °Csea
15 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
Bethany BeachChiang Mai

Where the figures come from

Bethany Beach's temperatures are measured 45 km from the centre, at Salisbury / Quail Ridge.

Bethany Beach 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. Bethany Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Salisbury / Quail Ridge (44.9 km from centre). Chiang Mai: 1991-2020 normals, Chiang Mai (0.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBethany BeachChiang Mai
Official language-Thai
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Baht (THB)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number911Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation3 m310 m
Main airportSalisbury Ocean City Wicomico Regional Airport (SBY)45 km from centre4 non-stop destinationsChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days-

By the numbers

MeasureBethany BeachChiang Mai
City population9541,198,000
People per km²3182,958
Museums within 10 km06
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bethany Beach 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.