VacationSelector
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city
Korenlei reflected in the Leie, Ghent
GhentKorenlei reflected in the Leie

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

Chiang Mai or Ghent?

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
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Ghent for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Ghent’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, Ghent 25: Ghent leads by 19 points.
Food & drink. Chiang Mai 78, Ghent 62: Chiang Mai leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Chiang Mai 65, Ghent 72: Ghent leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Chiang Mai 45, Ghent 55: Ghent leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chiang Mai 73, Ghent 35: Chiang Mai leads by 38 points.
Day trips. Chiang Mai 48, Ghent 88: Ghent leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Chiang Mai 55, Ghent 50: Chiang Mai leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Chiang Mai 38, Ghent 78: Ghent leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Chiang Mai 62, Ghent 50: Chiang Mai leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Chiang Mai 90, Ghent 38: Chiang Mai leads by 52 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chiang Mai 30, Ghent 60: Ghent leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chiang Mai 82, Ghent 33: Chiang Mai leads by 49 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chiang Mai and Ghent.

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 prices and wellness with your weighting.

Ghent
54match

Wins on day trips 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

Ghent in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
77 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Chiang MaiGhent

Where the figures come from

Ghent 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.

Ghent's sunshine is measured 45 km from the centre, at Vlissingen.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chiang Mai: 1991-2020 normals, Chiang Mai (0.6 km from centre). Ghent: 2009-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Melle / Kalverhaag (10.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChiang MaiGhent
Official languageThaiFrench, German, Dutch
CurrencyBaht (THB)Euro (EUR)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199112
Elevation310 m12 m
Main airportChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsBrussels Airport (BRU)56 km from centre191 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-14 days

By the numbers

MeasureChiang MaiGhent
City population1,198,000272,657
People per km²2,9581,728
Museums within 10 km630
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km05
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 Ghent 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. 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.