VacationSelector
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city
Botero sculptures on Plaza Botero, Medellin
MedellinBotero sculptures on Plaza Botero

Photos: Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License; Medellin by Steffen Schmitz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Chiang Mai or Medellin?

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

  • wellness
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

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

Choose Medellin for

  • nightlife
  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Medellin’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, Medellin 5: Chiang Mai leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Chiang Mai 78, Medellin 58: Chiang Mai leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Chiang Mai 65, Medellin 42: Chiang Mai leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Chiang Mai 45, Medellin 76: Medellin leads by 31 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chiang Mai 73, Medellin 66: Chiang Mai leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Chiang Mai 48, Medellin 58: Medellin leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Chiang Mai 55, Medellin 50: Chiang Mai leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Chiang Mai 38, Medellin 55: Medellin leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Chiang Mai 62, Medellin 45: Chiang Mai leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Chiang Mai 90, Medellin 80: Chiang Mai leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chiang Mai 30, Medellin 42: Medellin leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chiang Mai 82, Medellin 30: Chiang Mai leads by 52 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chiang Mai and Medellin.

Your match

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

Chiang Mai
Best match
56match

Wins on wellness and culture and sights with your weighting.

Medellin
51match

Wins on nightlife and getting around 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
13 hdaylight a day

Medellin in July

29 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
133 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Chiang MaiMedellin

Where the figures come from

Medellin 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). Medellin: 1958-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Medellin / Olaya Herrera (5.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChiang MaiMedellin
Official languageThaiSpanish
CurrencyBaht (THB)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199123
Elevation310 m1,405 m
Main airportChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsJose Maria Córdova International Airport (MDE)19 km from centre41 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-19 days

By the numbers

MeasureChiang MaiMedellin
City population1,198,0002,529,403
People per km²2,9586,644
Museums within 10 km614
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Chiang Mai or Medellin 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. 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.