VacationSelector
The Hôtel du Palais, Biarritz
BiarritzThe Hôtel du Palais
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city

Photos: Biarritz by Lilipiapia, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License.

Biarritz 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 Biarritz for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • getting around

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

Choose Chiang Mai for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

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. Biarritz 68, Chiang Mai 6: Biarritz leads by 62 points.
Food & drink. Biarritz 62, Chiang Mai 78: Chiang Mai leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Biarritz 33, Chiang Mai 65: Chiang Mai leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Biarritz 36, Chiang Mai 45: Chiang Mai leads by 9 points.
Nature & outdoors. Biarritz 74, Chiang Mai 73: Biarritz leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Biarritz 80, Chiang Mai 48: Biarritz leads by 32 points.
Good for families. Biarritz 62, Chiang Mai 55: Biarritz leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Biarritz 58, Chiang Mai 38: Biarritz leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Biarritz 42, Chiang Mai 62: Chiang Mai leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Biarritz 30, Chiang Mai 90: Chiang Mai leads by 60 points.
Live music & performing arts. Biarritz 38, Chiang Mai 30: Biarritz leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Biarritz 64, Chiang Mai 82: Chiang Mai leads by 18 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Biarritz and Chiang Mai.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Biarritz
54match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Chiang Mai
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.

Biarritz in July

24 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
97 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
21 °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
BiarritzChiang Mai

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Biarritz: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Biarritz (2.5 km from centre). Chiang Mai: 1991-2020 normals, Chiang Mai (0.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBiarritzChiang Mai
Official languageFrenchThai
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Baht (THB)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number112Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation0 m310 m
Main airportBiarritz Pays Basque airport (BIQ)3 km from centre25 non-stop destinationsChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureBiarritzChiang Mai
City population26,2061,198,000
People per km²2,2402,958
Museums within 10 km86
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Biarritz 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.