VacationSelector
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city
A paraglider over the beach at Ölüdeniz, Fethiye
FethiyeA paraglider over the beach at Ölüdeniz

Photos: Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License; Fethiye by rheins, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Chiang Mai or Fethiye?

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

  • food and drink
  • culture and sights
  • prices

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

Choose Fethiye for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Fethiye’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, Fethiye 82: Fethiye leads by 76 points.
Food & drink. Chiang Mai 78, Fethiye 45: Chiang Mai leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. Chiang Mai 65, Fethiye 35: Chiang Mai leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Chiang Mai 45, Fethiye 42: Chiang Mai leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chiang Mai 73, Fethiye 84: Fethiye leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Chiang Mai 48, Fethiye 76: Fethiye leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Chiang Mai 55, Fethiye 60: Fethiye leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Chiang Mai 38, Fethiye 50: Fethiye leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Chiang Mai 62, Fethiye 38: Chiang Mai leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Chiang Mai 90, Fethiye 62: Chiang Mai leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chiang Mai 30, Fethiye 15: Chiang Mai leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chiang Mai 82, Fethiye 55: Chiang Mai leads by 27 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chiang Mai and Fethiye.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Chiang Mai
56match

Wins on food and drink and culture and sights with your weighting.

Fethiye
54match

Wins on beaches 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
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Fethiye in July

32 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
8 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
26 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Chiang MaiFethiye

Where the figures come from

Fethiye's temperatures are measured 31 km from the centre, at Dalaman.

Fethiye 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). Fethiye: 2000-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Dalaman (30.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChiang MaiFethiye
Official languageThaiTurkish
CurrencyBaht (THB)Turkish Lira (TRY)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+3
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199112
Elevation310 m0 m
Main airportChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsDalaman International Airport (DLM)30 km from centre61 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-14 days

By the numbers

MeasureChiang MaiFethiye
City population1,198,000182,200
People per km²2,958-
Museums within 10 km61
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C-6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Chiang Mai or Fethiye 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.