VacationSelector
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city
The lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park, Paphos
PaphosThe lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park

Photos: Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License; Paphos by Nikodem Nijaki, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Chiang Mai or Paphos?

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
  • prices
  • shopping

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

Choose Paphos for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Paphos’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, Paphos 76: Paphos leads by 70 points.
Food & drink. Chiang Mai 78, Paphos 45: Chiang Mai leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. Chiang Mai 65, Paphos 62: Chiang Mai leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Chiang Mai 45, Paphos 38: Chiang Mai leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chiang Mai 73, Paphos 70: Chiang Mai leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Chiang Mai 48, Paphos 64: Paphos leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Chiang Mai 55, Paphos 68: Paphos leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Chiang Mai 38, Paphos 40: Paphos leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Chiang Mai 62, Paphos 25: Chiang Mai leads by 37 points.
Affordability. Chiang Mai 90, Paphos 52: Chiang Mai leads by 38 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chiang Mai 30, Paphos 22: Chiang Mai leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chiang Mai 82, Paphos 42: Chiang Mai leads by 40 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chiang Mai and Paphos.

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 prices with your weighting.

Paphos
50match

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

Paphos in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
27 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Chiang MaiPaphos

Where the figures come from

Paphos 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). Paphos: 1991-2020 normals, Paphos Airport (8.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChiang MaiPaphos
Official languageThaiTurkish, Greek, Modern Greek
CurrencyBaht (THB)Euro (EUR)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199112
Elevation310 m72 m
Main airportChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsPaphos International Airport (PFO)8 km from centre58 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-17 days

By the numbers

MeasureChiang MaiPaphos
City population1,198,00035,961
People per km²2,9581,987
Museums within 10 km64
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
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 Paphos 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.