VacationSelector
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city
Cocoa Beach Pier behind yellow parasols, Cocoa Beach
Cocoa BeachCocoa Beach Pier behind yellow parasols

Photos: Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License; Cocoa Beach by Benoît Prieur, CC0.

Chiang Mai or Cocoa Beach?

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 Chiang Mai for

  • culture and sights
  • wellness
  • prices

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

Choose Cocoa Beach for

  • beaches
  • families
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Cocoa Beach’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. Chiang Mai 6, Cocoa Beach 80: Cocoa Beach leads by 74 points.
Food & drink. Chiang Mai 78, Cocoa Beach 32: Chiang Mai leads by 46 points.
Culture & sights. Chiang Mai 65, Cocoa Beach 12: Chiang Mai leads by 53 points.
Nightlife. Chiang Mai 45, Cocoa Beach 27: Chiang Mai leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chiang Mai 73, Cocoa Beach 62: Chiang Mai leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Chiang Mai 48, Cocoa Beach 52: Cocoa Beach leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Chiang Mai 55, Cocoa Beach 72: Cocoa Beach leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Chiang Mai 38, Cocoa Beach 22: Chiang Mai leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Chiang Mai 62, Cocoa Beach 20: Chiang Mai leads by 42 points.
Affordability. Chiang Mai 90, Cocoa Beach 40: Chiang Mai leads by 50 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chiang Mai 30, Cocoa Beach 14: Chiang Mai leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chiang Mai 82, Cocoa Beach 30: Chiang Mai leads by 52 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Chiang Mai
Best match
56match

Wins on culture and sights and wellness with your weighting.

Cocoa Beach
39match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Cocoa Beach in July

30 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
147 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Chiang MaiCocoa Beach

Where the figures come from

Cocoa Beach 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chiang Mai: 1991-2020 normals, Chiang Mai (0.6 km from centre). Cocoa Beach: 1961-1990 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Cocoa / Patrick Air Force Base (11.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChiang MaiCocoa Beach
Official languageThai-
CurrencyBaht (THB)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199911
Elevation310 m0 m
Main airportChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsOrlando International Airport (MCO)68 km from centre170 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-11 days

By the numbers

MeasureChiang MaiCocoa Beach
City population1,198,00011,354
People per km²2,958290
Museums within 10 km63
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-11 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Chiang Mai or Cocoa Beach 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). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.