VacationSelector
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city
The Santa Cruz Cathedral Basilica in Fort Kochi, Kochi
KochiThe Santa Cruz Cathedral Basilica in Fort Kochi

Photos: Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License; Kochi by Vis M, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Chiang Mai or Kochi?

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

  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors
  • shopping

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

Choose Kochi for

  • beaches
  • live music and the arts
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Kochi’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, Kochi 38: Kochi leads by 32 points.
Food & drink. Chiang Mai 78, Kochi 66: Chiang Mai leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Chiang Mai 65, Kochi 62: Chiang Mai leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Chiang Mai 45, Kochi 18: Chiang Mai leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chiang Mai 73, Kochi 55: Chiang Mai leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Chiang Mai 48, Kochi 52: Kochi leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Chiang Mai 55, Kochi 40: Chiang Mai leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Chiang Mai 38, Kochi 44: Kochi leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Chiang Mai 62, Kochi 45: Chiang Mai leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Chiang Mai 90, Kochi 88: Chiang Mai leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chiang Mai 30, Kochi 40: Kochi leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chiang Mai 82, Kochi 70: Chiang Mai leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chiang Mai and Kochi.

Your match

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

Chiang Mai
Best match
56match

Wins on nightlife and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Kochi
52match

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

Kochi in July

27 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
439 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
27 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Chiang MaiKochi

Where the figures come from

Kochi has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chiang Mai: 1991-2020 normals, Chiang Mai (0.6 km from centre). Kochi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureChiang MaiKochi
Official languageThaiHindi, English
CurrencyBaht (THB)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+5:30
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199108 or 112
Elevation310 m0 m
Main airportChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsCochin International Airport (COK)24 km from centre36 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasureChiang MaiKochi
City population1,198,000677,381
People per km²2,9587,138
Museums within 10 km64
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 Kochi 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.