VacationSelector
The pyramids of Giza, Cairo
CairoThe pyramids of Giza
The Sanctuary of Truth by the sea, Pattaya
PattayaThe Sanctuary of Truth by the sea

Photos: Cairo by Ricardo Liberato, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Pattaya by Matrix, Pexels License.

Cairo 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 Cairo for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

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

Choose Pattaya for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • nightlife

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. Cairo 10, Pattaya 66: Pattaya leads by 56 points.
Food & drink. Cairo 60, Pattaya 58: Cairo leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Cairo 96, Pattaya 30: Cairo leads by 66 points.
Nightlife. Cairo 48, Pattaya 76: Pattaya leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cairo 30, Pattaya 40: Pattaya leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Cairo 66, Pattaya 52: Cairo leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Cairo 32, Pattaya 55: Pattaya leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Cairo 35, Pattaya 36: Pattaya leads by 1 points.
Shopping & style. Cairo 58, Pattaya 42: Cairo leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Cairo 95, Pattaya 84: Cairo leads by 11 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cairo 50, Pattaya 30: Cairo leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cairo 15, Pattaya 58: Pattaya leads by 43 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cairo and Pattaya.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Cairo
50match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Pattaya
52match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cairo in July

36 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
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
CairoPattaya

Where the figures come from

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. Cairo: 1991-2020 normals, Helwan (21.9 km from centre). Pattaya: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1961-1990, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sattahip (31.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCairoPattaya
Official languageArabicThai
CurrencyEgyptian Pound (EGP)Baht (THB)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+7
Emergency numberPolice 122, ambulance 123, fire 180Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation23 m35 m
Main airportCairo International Airport (CAI)17 km from centre127 non-stop destinationsSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)83 km from centre150 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCairoPattaya
City population9,801,536119,532
People per km²18,564-
Museums within 10 km480
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cairo 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.