VacationSelector
Bodrum Castle and gulets in the harbour, Bodrum
BodrumBodrum Castle and gulets in the harbour
The Sanctuary of Truth by the sea, Pattaya
PattayaThe Sanctuary of Truth by the sea

Photos: Bodrum by Serhio Magpie, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Pattaya by Matrix, Pexels License.

Bodrum or Pattaya?

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 Bodrum for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Pattaya for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Pattaya’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. Bodrum 80, Pattaya 66: Bodrum leads by 14 points.
Food & drink. Bodrum 60, Pattaya 58: Bodrum leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Bodrum 45, Pattaya 30: Bodrum leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Bodrum 65, Pattaya 76: Pattaya leads by 11 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bodrum 60, Pattaya 40: Bodrum leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Bodrum 72, Pattaya 52: Bodrum leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Bodrum 66, Pattaya 55: Bodrum leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Bodrum 42, Pattaya 36: Bodrum leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Bodrum 45, Pattaya 42: Bodrum leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Bodrum 38, Pattaya 84: Pattaya leads by 46 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bodrum 32, Pattaya 30: Bodrum leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bodrum 52, Pattaya 58: Pattaya leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bodrum and Pattaya.

Your match

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

Bodrum
Best match
55match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and day trips with your weighting.

Pattaya
52match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Bodrum in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
2 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
24 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Pattaya in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
102 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
BodrumPattaya

Where the figures come from

Bodrum's temperatures are measured 43 km from the centre, at Kos Airport.

Bodrum 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.

Pattaya's temperatures are measured 31 km from the centre, at Sattahip.

Pattaya 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.

Pattaya's sunshine is measured 86 km from the centre, at Bangna Agromet / Ban Khlong Samrong.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bodrum: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Kos Airport (42.7 km from centre). Pattaya: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1961-1990, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sattahip (31.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBodrumPattaya
Official languageTurkishThai
CurrencyTurkish Lira (TRY)Baht (THB)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+7
Emergency number112Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation10 m35 m
Main airportMilas Bodrum International Airport (BJV)32 km from centre83 non-stop destinationsSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)83 km from centre150 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days-

By the numbers

MeasureBodrumPattaya
City population175,000119,532
People per km²314-
Museums within 10 km40
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bodrum or Pattaya 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). 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. 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.