VacationSelector
The Cathedral of Sant'Agata, Catania
CataniaThe Cathedral of Sant'Agata
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city

Photos: Catania by Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License.

Catania 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 Catania for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Chiang Mai for

  • wellness
  • prices
  • shopping

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. Catania 72, Chiang Mai 6: Catania leads by 66 points.
Food & drink. Catania 77, Chiang Mai 78: Chiang Mai leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Catania 62, Chiang Mai 65: Chiang Mai leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Catania 60, Chiang Mai 45: Catania leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Catania 83, Chiang Mai 73: Catania leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Catania 84, Chiang Mai 48: Catania leads by 36 points.
Good for families. Catania 50, Chiang Mai 55: Chiang Mai leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Catania 48, Chiang Mai 38: Catania leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Catania 42, Chiang Mai 62: Chiang Mai leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Catania 60, Chiang Mai 90: Chiang Mai leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Catania 55, Chiang Mai 30: Catania leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Catania 30, Chiang Mai 82: Chiang Mai leads by 52 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Catania and Chiang Mai.

Your match

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

Catania
Best match
60match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Chiang Mai
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.

Catania in July

31 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 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
CataniaChiang Mai

Where the figures come from

Catania's sunshine is measured 88 km from the centre, at Messina.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Catania: 1991-2020 normals, Catania / Fontanarossa (5.2 km from centre). Chiang Mai: 1991-2020 normals, Chiang Mai (0.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCataniaChiang Mai
Official languageItalianThai
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Baht (THB)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number112Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation7 m310 m
Main airportCatania-Fontanarossa Airport (CTA)4 km from centre96 non-stop destinationsChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCataniaChiang Mai
City population311,5841,198,000
People per km²1,7042,958
Museums within 10 km256
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months-

Where else could you go?

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