VacationSelector
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay

Photos: Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License; Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License.

Chiang Mai or Montego Bay?

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
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

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

Choose Montego Bay for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Montego Bay’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, Montego Bay 84: Montego Bay leads by 78 points.
Food & drink. Chiang Mai 78, Montego Bay 50: Chiang Mai leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Chiang Mai 65, Montego Bay 28: Chiang Mai leads by 37 points.
Nightlife. Chiang Mai 45, Montego Bay 42: Chiang Mai leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chiang Mai 73, Montego Bay 65: Chiang Mai leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Chiang Mai 48, Montego Bay 50: Montego Bay leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Chiang Mai 55, Montego Bay 48: Chiang Mai leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Chiang Mai 38, Montego Bay 20: Chiang Mai leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Chiang Mai 62, Montego Bay 25: Chiang Mai leads by 37 points.
Affordability. Chiang Mai 90, Montego Bay 38: Chiang Mai leads by 52 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chiang Mai 30, Montego Bay 32: Montego Bay leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chiang Mai 82, Montego Bay 45: Chiang Mai leads by 37 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chiang Mai and Montego Bay.

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 culture and sights with your weighting.

Montego Bay
44match

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

Montego Bay in July

34 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
75 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Chiang MaiMontego Bay

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chiang Mai: 1991-2020 normals, Chiang Mai (0.6 km from centre). Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChiang MaiMontego Bay
Official languageThaiEnglish, Jamaican Patois
CurrencyBaht (THB)Jamaican Dollar (JMD)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzAB116 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199Police 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation310 m19 m
Main airportChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-10 days

By the numbers

MeasureChiang MaiMontego Bay
City population1,198,000123,994
People per km²2,958-
Museums within 10 km60
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 Montego Bay 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. 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.