VacationSelector
The coastline of the Hotel Zone, Cancun
CancunThe coastline of the Hotel Zone
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city

Photos: Cancun by Tellez Erik, Pexels License; Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License.

Cancun 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 Cancun for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • families

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

Choose Chiang Mai for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • food and drink

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. Cancun 98, Chiang Mai 6: Cancun leads by 92 points.
Food & drink. Cancun 44, Chiang Mai 78: Chiang Mai leads by 34 points.
Culture & sights. Cancun 15, Chiang Mai 65: Chiang Mai leads by 50 points.
Nightlife. Cancun 70, Chiang Mai 45: Cancun leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cancun 66, Chiang Mai 73: Chiang Mai leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Cancun 65, Chiang Mai 48: Cancun leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Cancun 78, Chiang Mai 55: Cancun leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Cancun 25, Chiang Mai 38: Chiang Mai leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Cancun 40, Chiang Mai 62: Chiang Mai leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Cancun 46, Chiang Mai 90: Chiang Mai leads by 44 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cancun 17, Chiang Mai 30: Chiang Mai leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cancun 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: Cancun and Chiang Mai.

Your match

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

Cancun
52match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Chiang Mai
Best match
56match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cancun in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
89 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 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
CancunChiang Mai

Where the figures come from

Cancun has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cancun: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Chiang Mai: 1991-2020 normals, Chiang Mai (0.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCancunChiang Mai
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaThai
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Baht (THB)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+7
Emergency number911Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation5 m310 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCancunChiang Mai
City population888,7971,198,000
People per km²-2,958
Museums within 10 km16
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cancun or Chiang Mai somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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.