VacationSelector
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city
Main Beach with its palms and lifeguard tower, Laguna Beach
Laguna BeachMain Beach with its palms and lifeguard tower

Photos: Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License; Laguna Beach by Mark Stebnicki, Pexels License.

Chiang Mai or Laguna Beach?

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
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Laguna Beach for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Laguna Beach’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, Laguna Beach 72: Laguna Beach leads by 66 points.
Food & drink. Chiang Mai 78, Laguna Beach 40: Chiang Mai leads by 38 points.
Culture & sights. Chiang Mai 65, Laguna Beach 27: Chiang Mai leads by 38 points.
Nightlife. Chiang Mai 45, Laguna Beach 18: Chiang Mai leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chiang Mai and Laguna Beach are level on 73.
Day trips. Chiang Mai 48, Laguna Beach 72: Laguna Beach leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Chiang Mai 55, Laguna Beach 68: Laguna Beach leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Chiang Mai 38, Laguna Beach 33: Chiang Mai leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Chiang Mai 62, Laguna Beach 46: Chiang Mai leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Chiang Mai 90, Laguna Beach 12: Chiang Mai leads by 78 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chiang Mai 30, Laguna Beach 40: Laguna Beach leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chiang Mai 82, Laguna Beach 47: Chiang Mai leads by 35 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chiang Mai and Laguna Beach.

Your match

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

Chiang Mai
Best match
56match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

Laguna Beach
46match

Wins on beaches and day trips 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

Laguna Beach in July

28 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Chiang MaiLaguna Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chiang Mai: 1991-2020 normals, Chiang Mai (0.6 km from centre). Laguna Beach: 1981-2010 normals, Irvine (15.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChiang MaiLaguna Beach
Official languageThai-
CurrencyBaht (THB)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199911
Elevation310 m6 m
Main airportChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)18 km from centre53 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasureChiang MaiLaguna Beach
City population1,198,00023,032
People per km²2,958907
Museums within 10 km62
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Laguna Beach 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.