VacationSelector
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city
Rocks and beach in Tangolunda Bay, Huatulco
HuatulcoRocks and beach in Tangolunda Bay

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

Chiang Mai or Huatulco?

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

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • food and drink

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

Choose Huatulco for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Huatulco’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, Huatulco 86: Huatulco leads by 80 points.
Food & drink. Chiang Mai 78, Huatulco 44: Chiang Mai leads by 34 points.
Culture & sights. Chiang Mai 65, Huatulco 15: Chiang Mai leads by 50 points.
Nightlife. Chiang Mai 45, Huatulco 24: Chiang Mai leads by 21 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chiang Mai 73, Huatulco 76: Huatulco leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Chiang Mai 48, Huatulco 40: Chiang Mai leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Chiang Mai 55, Huatulco 56: Huatulco leads by 1 points.
Getting around. Chiang Mai 38, Huatulco 33: Chiang Mai leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Chiang Mai 62, Huatulco 20: Chiang Mai leads by 42 points.
Affordability. Chiang Mai 90, Huatulco 62: Chiang Mai leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chiang Mai 30, Huatulco 9: Chiang Mai leads by 21 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chiang Mai 82, Huatulco 52: Chiang Mai leads by 30 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Chiang Mai
Best match
56match

Wins on culture and sights and shopping with your weighting.

Huatulco
43match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors 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

Huatulco in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
156 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Chiang MaiHuatulco

Where the figures come from

Huatulco's temperatures are measured 42 km from the centre, at Puerto Angel, Oax..

Huatulco's station stands 177 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Huatulco 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). Huatulco: 1991-2020 normals, Puerto Angel, Oax. (42.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChiang MaiHuatulco
Official languageThaiSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyBaht (THB)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199911
Elevation310 m220 m
Main airportChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsBahías de Huatulco International Airport (HUX)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-9 days

By the numbers

MeasureChiang MaiHuatulco
City population1,198,0007,409
People per km²2,958-
Museums within 10 km60
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Huatulco 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.