VacationSelector
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city
Bougainvillea and the dome of Agia Napa Cathedral, Limassol
LimassolBougainvillea and the dome of Agia Napa Cathedral

Photos: Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License; Limassol by Julian Lupyan, CC0.

Chiang Mai or Limassol?

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
  • wellness
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Limassol for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Limassol’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, Limassol 77: Limassol leads by 71 points.
Food & drink. Chiang Mai 78, Limassol 58: Chiang Mai leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Chiang Mai 65, Limassol 38: Chiang Mai leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Chiang Mai 45, Limassol 50: Limassol leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chiang Mai 73, Limassol 65: Chiang Mai leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Chiang Mai 48, Limassol 76: Limassol leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Chiang Mai 55, Limassol 63: Limassol leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Chiang Mai and Limassol are level on 38.
Shopping & style. Chiang Mai 62, Limassol 42: Chiang Mai leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Chiang Mai 90, Limassol 44: Chiang Mai leads by 46 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chiang Mai 30, Limassol 32: Limassol leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chiang Mai 82, Limassol 42: Chiang Mai leads by 40 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chiang Mai and Limassol.

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 wellness with your weighting.

Limassol
52match

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

Limassol in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
13 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Chiang MaiLimassol

Where the figures come from

Limassol 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.

Limassol's sunshine is measured 59 km from the centre, at Larnaca Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chiang Mai: 1991-2020 normals, Chiang Mai (0.6 km from centre). Limassol: 1998-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Akrotiri (11.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChiang MaiLimassol
Official languageThaiTurkish, Greek, Modern Greek
CurrencyBaht (THB)Euro (EUR)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199112
Elevation310 m10 m
Main airportChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsLarnaca International Airport (LCA)58 km from centre112 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-17 days

By the numbers

MeasureChiang MaiLimassol
City population1,198,000107,970
People per km²2,9582,405
Museums within 10 km62
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km03
Swim season, months above 21 °C-6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Chiang Mai or Limassol 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.