VacationSelector
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city
Praia Mole in Florianopolis, Florianopolis
FlorianopolisPraia Mole in Florianopolis

Photos: Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License; Florianopolis by Papa Pic, CC0.

Chiang Mai or Florianopolis?

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

  • wellness
  • culture and sights
  • prices

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

Choose Florianopolis for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Florianopolis’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, Florianopolis 85: Florianopolis leads by 79 points.
Food & drink. Chiang Mai 78, Florianopolis 58: Chiang Mai leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Chiang Mai 65, Florianopolis 33: Chiang Mai leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Chiang Mai 45, Florianopolis 60: Florianopolis leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chiang Mai 73, Florianopolis 78: Florianopolis leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Chiang Mai 48, Florianopolis 50: Florianopolis leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Chiang Mai 55, Florianopolis 60: Florianopolis leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Chiang Mai 38, Florianopolis 28: Chiang Mai leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Chiang Mai 62, Florianopolis 33: Chiang Mai leads by 29 points.
Affordability. Chiang Mai 90, Florianopolis 60: Chiang Mai leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chiang Mai 30, Florianopolis 28: Chiang Mai leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chiang Mai 82, Florianopolis 45: Chiang Mai leads by 37 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chiang Mai and Florianopolis.

Your match

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

Chiang Mai
Best match
56match

Wins on wellness and culture and sights with your weighting.

Florianopolis
52match

Wins on beaches and nightlife 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

Florianopolis in July

21 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Chiang MaiFlorianopolis

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chiang Mai: 1991-2020 normals, Chiang Mai (0.6 km from centre). Florianopolis: 1991-2020 normals, Florianopolis (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChiang MaiFlorianopolis
Official languageThaiPortuguese
CurrencyBaht (THB)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-3
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation310 m3 m
Main airportChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsHercílio Luz International Airport (FLN)9 km from centre21 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-14 days

By the numbers

MeasureChiang MaiFlorianopolis
City population1,198,000587,486
People per km²2,958870
Museums within 10 km611
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-7 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Chiang Mai or Florianopolis 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.