VacationSelector
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city
Galway Cathedral from the River Corrib, Galway
GalwayGalway Cathedral from the River Corrib

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

Chiang Mai or Galway?

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

  • prices
  • wellness
  • food and drink

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

Choose Galway for

  • live music and the arts
  • beaches
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Galway’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, Galway 28: Galway leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Chiang Mai 78, Galway 45: Chiang Mai leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. Chiang Mai 65, Galway 33: Chiang Mai leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Chiang Mai 45, Galway 50: Galway leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chiang Mai 73, Galway 78: Galway leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Chiang Mai 48, Galway 56: Galway leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Chiang Mai 55, Galway 42: Chiang Mai leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Chiang Mai 38, Galway 58: Galway leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Chiang Mai 62, Galway 38: Chiang Mai leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Chiang Mai 90, Galway 28: Chiang Mai leads by 62 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chiang Mai 30, Galway 57: Galway leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chiang Mai 82, Galway 28: Chiang Mai leads by 54 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Chiang Mai
Best match
56match

Wins on prices and wellness with your weighting.

Galway
45match

Wins on live music and the arts and beaches 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

Galway in July

20 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Chiang MaiGalway

Where the figures come from

Galway's temperatures are measured 64 km from the centre, at Shannon Airport.

Galway 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). Galway: 1991-2020 normals, Shannon Airport (64.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChiang MaiGalway
Official languageThaiEnglish, Irish
CurrencyBaht (THB)Euro (EUR)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+7UTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199112
Elevation310 m25 m
Main airportChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsShannon Airport (SNN)64 km from centre39 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-11 days

By the numbers

MeasureChiang MaiGalway
City population1,198,00083,456
People per km²2,9581,563
Museums within 10 km64
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

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