VacationSelector
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city
A classic car in front of the Capitolio, Havana
HavanaA classic car in front of the Capitolio

Photos: Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License; Havana by AXP Photography, Pexels License.

Chiang Mai or Havana?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • food and drink

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

Choose Havana for

  • beaches
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Havana’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, Havana 64: Havana leads by 58 points.
Food & drink. Chiang Mai 78, Havana 40: Chiang Mai leads by 38 points.
Culture & sights. Chiang Mai 65, Havana 77: Havana leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Chiang Mai 45, Havana 60: Havana leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chiang Mai 73, Havana 34: Chiang Mai leads by 39 points.
Day trips. Chiang Mai 48, Havana 38: Chiang Mai leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Chiang Mai 55, Havana 34: Chiang Mai leads by 21 points.
Getting around. Chiang Mai and Havana are level on 38.
Shopping & style. Chiang Mai 62, Havana 30: Chiang Mai leads by 32 points.
Affordability. Chiang Mai 90, Havana 58: Chiang Mai leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chiang Mai 30, Havana 74: Havana leads by 44 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chiang Mai 82, Havana 22: Chiang Mai leads by 60 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chiang Mai and Havana.

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 nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Havana
47match

Wins on beaches and live music and the arts 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

Havana in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
118 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Chiang MaiHavana

Where the figures come from

Havana 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). Havana: 1991-2020 normals, Casa Blanca, La Habana (3.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChiang MaiHavana
Official languageThaiSpanish
CurrencyBaht (THB)Cuban Peso (CUP)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199Police 106, ambulance 104, fire 105
Elevation310 m59 m
Main airportChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsJosé Martí International Airport (HAV)17 km from centre21 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-9 days

By the numbers

MeasureChiang MaiHavana
City population1,198,0002,492,618
People per km²2,9583,423
Museums within 10 km612
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Havana 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.