VacationSelector
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city
A galleon on the Motława below the old crane, Gdansk
GdanskA galleon on the Motława below the old crane

Photos: Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License; Gdansk by Nikater, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Chiang Mai or Gdansk?

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
  • food and drink
  • prices

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

Choose Gdansk for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Gdansk’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, Gdansk 40: Gdansk leads by 34 points.
Food & drink. Chiang Mai 78, Gdansk 50: Chiang Mai leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Chiang Mai 65, Gdansk 68: Gdansk leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Chiang Mai 45, Gdansk 52: Gdansk leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chiang Mai 73, Gdansk 58: Chiang Mai leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Chiang Mai 48, Gdansk 62: Gdansk leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Chiang Mai 55, Gdansk 62: Gdansk leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Chiang Mai 38, Gdansk 72: Gdansk leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. Chiang Mai 62, Gdansk 42: Chiang Mai leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Chiang Mai 90, Gdansk 68: Chiang Mai leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chiang Mai 30, Gdansk 52: Gdansk leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chiang Mai 82, Gdansk 36: Chiang Mai leads by 46 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chiang Mai and Gdansk.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Chiang Mai
56match

Wins on wellness and food and drink with your weighting.

Gdansk
55match

Wins on beaches and getting around 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

Gdansk in July

22 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
85 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Chiang MaiGdansk

Where the figures come from

Gdansk 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.

Gdansk's sunshine is measured 55 km from the centre, at Elblag.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chiang Mai: 1991-2020 normals, Chiang Mai (0.6 km from centre). Gdansk: 1991-2020 normals, Gdansk-Rebiechowo (12.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChiang MaiGdansk
Official languageThaiPolish
CurrencyBaht (THB)Zloty (PLN)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzCE50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199112
Elevation310 m11 m
Main airportChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsGdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport (GDN)13 km from centre72 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-14 days

By the numbers

MeasureChiang MaiGdansk
City population1,198,000487,834
People per km²2,958714
Museums within 10 km634
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
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 Gdansk 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.