VacationSelector
Cardiff Castle, Cardiff
CardiffCardiff Castle
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city

Photos: Cardiff by Tevfik Teker, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License.

Cardiff 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 Cardiff for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • beaches

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

Choose Chiang Mai for

  • wellness
  • 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. Cardiff 30, Chiang Mai 6: Cardiff leads by 24 points.
Food & drink. Cardiff 45, Chiang Mai 78: Chiang Mai leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. Cardiff 58, Chiang Mai 65: Chiang Mai leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Cardiff 50, Chiang Mai 45: Cardiff leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cardiff 70, Chiang Mai 73: Chiang Mai leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Cardiff 72, Chiang Mai 48: Cardiff leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Cardiff 58, Chiang Mai 55: Cardiff leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Cardiff 66, Chiang Mai 38: Cardiff leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. Cardiff 50, Chiang Mai 62: Chiang Mai leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Cardiff 46, Chiang Mai 90: Chiang Mai leads by 44 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cardiff 57, Chiang Mai 30: Cardiff leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cardiff 27, Chiang Mai 82: Chiang Mai leads by 55 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cardiff and Chiang Mai.

Your match

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

Cardiff
52match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Chiang Mai
Best match
56match

Wins on wellness 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.

Cardiff in July

20 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
83 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
17 °Csea
16 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
CardiffChiang Mai

Where the figures come from

Cardiff 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.

Cardiff's sunshine is measured 83 km from the centre, at Lyneham.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cardiff: 1991-2020 normals, Cardiff-Wales Airport (14.9 km from centre). Chiang Mai: 1991-2020 normals, Chiang Mai (0.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCardiffChiang Mai
Official languageEnglishThai
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Baht (THB)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number112 or 999Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation41 m310 m
Main airportCardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCardiffChiang Mai
City population383,5361,198,000
People per km²2,7342,958
Museums within 10 km96
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

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