VacationSelector
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city
Flinders Street Station, Melbourne
MelbourneFlinders Street Station

Photos: Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License; Melbourne by Medelam, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Chiang Mai or Melbourne?

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 Melbourne for

  • beaches
  • live music and the arts
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Melbourne’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, Melbourne 50: Melbourne leads by 44 points.
Food & drink. Chiang Mai 78, Melbourne 75: Chiang Mai leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Chiang Mai 65, Melbourne 57: Chiang Mai leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Chiang Mai 45, Melbourne 75: Melbourne leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chiang Mai 73, Melbourne 70: Chiang Mai leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Chiang Mai 48, Melbourne 62: Melbourne leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Chiang Mai 55, Melbourne 73: Melbourne leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Chiang Mai 38, Melbourne 76: Melbourne leads by 38 points.
Shopping & style. Chiang Mai 62, Melbourne 70: Melbourne leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Chiang Mai 90, Melbourne 31: Chiang Mai leads by 59 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chiang Mai 30, Melbourne 72: Melbourne leads by 42 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chiang Mai 82, Melbourne 54: Chiang Mai leads by 28 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chiang Mai and Melbourne.

Your match

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

Chiang Mai
56match

Wins on prices and wellness with your weighting.

Melbourne
Best match
64match

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

Melbourne in July

14 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Chiang MaiMelbourne

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chiang Mai: 1991-2020 normals, Chiang Mai (0.6 km from centre). Melbourne: 1991-2020 normals, Latrobe University / Kingsbury (13.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChiang MaiMelbourne
Official languageThaiEnglish
CurrencyBaht (THB)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+10, UTC+11 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199000
Elevation310 m31 m
Main airportChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsMelbourne Airport (MEL)19 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasureChiang MaiMelbourne
City population1,198,0005,350,705
People per km²2,958535
Museums within 10 km643
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Melbourne 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.