VacationSelector
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city
The SkyWheel by the beach, Myrtle Beach
Myrtle BeachThe SkyWheel by the beach

Photos: Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License; Myrtle Beach by The ed17, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Chiang Mai or Myrtle 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

  • wellness
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

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

Choose Myrtle Beach for

  • beaches
  • families
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Myrtle 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, Myrtle Beach 84: Myrtle Beach leads by 78 points.
Food & drink. Chiang Mai 78, Myrtle Beach 38: Chiang Mai leads by 40 points.
Culture & sights. Chiang Mai 65, Myrtle Beach 20: Chiang Mai leads by 45 points.
Nightlife. Chiang Mai 45, Myrtle Beach 42: Chiang Mai leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chiang Mai 73, Myrtle Beach 46: Chiang Mai leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Chiang Mai 48, Myrtle Beach 50: Myrtle Beach leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Chiang Mai 55, Myrtle Beach 80: Myrtle Beach leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Chiang Mai 38, Myrtle Beach 18: Chiang Mai leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Chiang Mai 62, Myrtle Beach 38: Chiang Mai leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Chiang Mai 90, Myrtle Beach 52: Chiang Mai leads by 38 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chiang Mai and Myrtle Beach are level on 30.
Wellness & relaxation. Chiang Mai 82, Myrtle Beach 28: Chiang Mai leads by 54 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chiang Mai and Myrtle Beach.

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.

Myrtle Beach
44match

Wins on beaches and families 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

Myrtle Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
172 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Chiang MaiMyrtle Beach

Where the figures come from

Myrtle Beach 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). Myrtle Beach: 1971-2000 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Myrtle Beach Air Force Base (5.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChiang MaiMyrtle 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 m8 m
Main airportChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsMyrtle Beach International Airport (MYR)5 km from centre60 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-12 days

By the numbers

MeasureChiang MaiMyrtle Beach
City population1,198,00035,682
People per km²2,958591
Museums within 10 km62
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Myrtle 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.