VacationSelector
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city
The Dutch Reformed Church in Galle Fort, Galle
GalleThe Dutch Reformed Church in Galle Fort

Photos: Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License; Galle by Francisco Anzola, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Chiang Mai or Galle?

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

  • shopping
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

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

Choose Galle for

  • beaches
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Galle’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, Galle 80: Galle leads by 74 points.
Food & drink. Chiang Mai 78, Galle 50: Chiang Mai leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Chiang Mai 65, Galle 55: Chiang Mai leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Chiang Mai 45, Galle 18: Chiang Mai leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chiang Mai 73, Galle 66: Chiang Mai leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Chiang Mai 48, Galle 50: Galle leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Chiang Mai 55, Galle 42: Chiang Mai leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Chiang Mai 38, Galle 35: Chiang Mai leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Chiang Mai 62, Galle 33: Chiang Mai leads by 29 points.
Affordability. Chiang Mai 90, Galle 72: Chiang Mai leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chiang Mai 30, Galle 10: Chiang Mai leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chiang Mai 82, Galle 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 Galle.

Your match

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

Chiang Mai
Best match
56match

Wins on shopping and food and drink with your weighting.

Galle
48match

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

Galle in July

28 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
116 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Chiang MaiGalle

Where the figures come from

Galle has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chiang Mai: 1991-2020 normals, Chiang Mai (0.6 km from centre). Galle: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureChiang MaiGalle
Official languageThaiTamil, Sinhala
CurrencyBaht (THB)Sri Lanka Rupee (LKR)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzGM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+5:30
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199Police 119, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation310 m0 m
Main airportChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)133 km from centre56 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasureChiang MaiGalle
City population1,198,00093,118
People per km²2,958-
Museums within 10 km62
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Chiang Mai or Galle 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.