VacationSelector
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city
The blue gate of Bab Bou Jeloud, Fes
FesThe blue gate of Bab Bou Jeloud

Photos: Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License; Fes by Ideophagous, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Chiang Mai or Fes?

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

  • nightlife
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Fes for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Fes’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, Fes 5: Chiang Mai leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Chiang Mai 78, Fes 62: Chiang Mai leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Chiang Mai 65, Fes 80: Fes leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Chiang Mai 45, Fes 12: Chiang Mai leads by 33 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chiang Mai 73, Fes 52: Chiang Mai leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Chiang Mai 48, Fes 62: Fes leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Chiang Mai 55, Fes 22: Chiang Mai leads by 33 points.
Getting around. Chiang Mai 38, Fes 40: Fes leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Chiang Mai 62, Fes 68: Fes leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Chiang Mai 90, Fes 80: Chiang Mai leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chiang Mai 30, Fes 32: Fes leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chiang Mai 82, Fes 70: Chiang Mai leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chiang Mai and Fes.

Your match

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

Chiang Mai
Best match
56match

Wins on nightlife and families with your weighting.

Fes
49match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips 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
13 hdaylight a day

Fes in July

36 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Chiang MaiFes

Where the figures come from

Fes's station stands 171 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Fes 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.

Fes's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at Meknes.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chiang Mai: 1991-2020 normals, Chiang Mai (0.6 km from centre). Fes: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Fes-Sais (12.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChiang MaiFes
Official languageThaiArabic, Standard Moroccan Tamazight
CurrencyBaht (THB)Moroccan Dirham (MAD)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzCE50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+1
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199Police 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15
Elevation310 m408 m
Main airportChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsFes Saïss International Airport (FEZ)13 km from centre35 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-11 days

By the numbers

MeasureChiang MaiFes
City population1,198,0001,167,842
People per km²2,9583,650
Museums within 10 km62
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Chiang Mai or Fes 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. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.