VacationSelector
The island church from the lakeshore, Bled
BledThe island church from the lakeshore
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city

Photos: Bled by Philipp Schwarz, Pexels License; Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License.

Bled 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 Bled for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • getting around

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

Choose Chiang Mai for

  • food and drink
  • shopping
  • prices

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. Bled 50, Chiang Mai 6: Bled leads by 44 points.
Food & drink. Bled 20, Chiang Mai 78: Chiang Mai leads by 58 points.
Culture & sights. Bled 22, Chiang Mai 65: Chiang Mai leads by 43 points.
Nightlife. Bled 5, Chiang Mai 45: Chiang Mai leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bled 86, Chiang Mai 73: Bled leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Bled 70, Chiang Mai 48: Bled leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Bled 60, Chiang Mai 55: Bled leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Bled 58, Chiang Mai 38: Bled leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Bled 5, Chiang Mai 62: Chiang Mai leads by 57 points.
Affordability. Bled 45, Chiang Mai 90: Chiang Mai leads by 45 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bled 5, Chiang Mai 30: Chiang Mai leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bled 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: Bled and Chiang Mai.

Your match

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

Bled
40match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Chiang Mai
Best match
56match

Wins on food and drink and shopping with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Bled in July

27 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
154 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine 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
BledChiang Mai

Where the figures come from

Bled's temperatures are measured 36 km from the centre, at Klagenfurt.

Bled 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. Bled: 1991-2020 normals, Klagenfurt (35.5 km from centre). Chiang Mai: 1991-2020 normals, Chiang Mai (0.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBledChiang Mai
Official languageSloveneThai
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Baht (THB)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number112Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation501 m310 m
Main airportLjubljana Jože Pučnik Airport (LJU)31 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year21 days-

By the numbers

MeasureBledChiang Mai
City population4,9691,198,000
People per km²262,958
Museums within 10 km46
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bled 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. 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.