VacationSelector
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city
A purple lifeguard tower on South Beach, Miami Beach
Miami BeachA purple lifeguard tower on South Beach

Photos: Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License; Miami Beach by Radomianin, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Chiang Mai or Miami 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
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Miami Beach for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Miami 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, Miami Beach 92: Miami Beach leads by 86 points.
Food & drink. Chiang Mai 78, Miami Beach 62: Chiang Mai leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Chiang Mai 65, Miami Beach 52: Chiang Mai leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Chiang Mai 45, Miami Beach 80: Miami Beach leads by 35 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chiang Mai 73, Miami Beach 52: Chiang Mai leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Chiang Mai 48, Miami Beach 55: Miami Beach leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Chiang Mai 55, Miami Beach 60: Miami Beach leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Chiang Mai 38, Miami Beach 58: Miami Beach leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Chiang Mai 62, Miami Beach 55: Chiang Mai leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Chiang Mai 90, Miami Beach 20: Chiang Mai leads by 70 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chiang Mai 30, Miami Beach 55: Miami Beach leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chiang Mai 82, Miami Beach 48: Chiang Mai leads by 34 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chiang Mai and Miami Beach.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Chiang Mai
56match

Wins on prices and wellness with your weighting.

Miami Beach
57match

Wins on beaches and nightlife 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

Miami Beach in July

33 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
186 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Chiang MaiMiami Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chiang Mai: 1991-2020 normals, Chiang Mai (0.6 km from centre). Miami Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Miami International Airport (18.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChiang MaiMiami Beach
Official languageThai-
CurrencyBaht (THB)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199911
Elevation310 m1 m
Main airportChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsMiami International Airport (MIA)16 km from centre198 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-11 days

By the numbers

MeasureChiang MaiMiami Beach
City population1,198,00082,890
People per km²2,9582,109
Museums within 10 km614
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 Miami 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.