VacationSelector
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city
Turquoise water off Giftun Island, Hurghada
HurghadaTurquoise water off Giftun Island

Photos: Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License; Hurghada by Andrey Korchagin, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Chiang Mai or Hurghada?

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
  • food and drink
  • shopping

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

Choose Hurghada for

  • beaches
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Hurghada’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, Hurghada 84: Hurghada leads by 78 points.
Food & drink. Chiang Mai 78, Hurghada 34: Chiang Mai leads by 44 points.
Culture & sights. Chiang Mai 65, Hurghada 14: Chiang Mai leads by 51 points.
Nightlife. Chiang Mai 45, Hurghada 40: Chiang Mai leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chiang Mai 73, Hurghada 72: Chiang Mai leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Chiang Mai 48, Hurghada 30: Chiang Mai leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Chiang Mai 55, Hurghada 62: Hurghada leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Chiang Mai 38, Hurghada 22: Chiang Mai leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Chiang Mai 62, Hurghada 24: Chiang Mai leads by 38 points.
Affordability. Chiang Mai 90, Hurghada 80: Chiang Mai leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chiang Mai 30, Hurghada 10: Chiang Mai leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chiang Mai 82, Hurghada 44: Chiang Mai leads by 38 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chiang Mai and Hurghada.

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 food and drink with your weighting.

Hurghada
43match

Wins on beaches and families 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

Hurghada in July

37 °Cdaytime high
28 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Chiang MaiHurghada

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chiang Mai: 1991-2020 normals, Chiang Mai (0.6 km from centre). Hurghada: 1991-2020 normals, Hurguada (15.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChiang MaiHurghada
Official languageThaiArabic
CurrencyBaht (THB)Egyptian Pound (EGP)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199Police 122, ambulance 123, fire 180
Elevation310 m11 m
Main airportChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsHurghada International Airport (HRG)9 km from centre111 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-15 days

By the numbers

MeasureChiang MaiHurghada
City population1,198,000214,247
People per km²2,958-
Museums within 10 km61
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 Hurghada 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.