VacationSelector
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock

Photos: Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License; Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License.

Chiang Mai or Petra?

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

  • food and drink
  • wellness
  • prices

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

Choose Petra for

  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Petra’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, Petra 5: Chiang Mai leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Chiang Mai 78, Petra 22: Chiang Mai leads by 56 points.
Culture & sights. Chiang Mai 65, Petra 85: Petra leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Chiang Mai 45, Petra 5: Chiang Mai leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chiang Mai 73, Petra 78: Petra leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Chiang Mai 48, Petra 30: Chiang Mai leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Chiang Mai 55, Petra 25: Chiang Mai leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Chiang Mai 38, Petra 25: Chiang Mai leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Chiang Mai 62, Petra 18: Chiang Mai leads by 44 points.
Affordability. Chiang Mai 90, Petra 45: Chiang Mai leads by 45 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chiang Mai 30, Petra 10: Chiang Mai leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chiang Mai 82, Petra 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 Petra.

Your match

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

Chiang Mai
Best match
56match

Wins on food and drink and wellness with your weighting.

Petra
31match

Wins on culture and sights and nature and the outdoors 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
13 hdaylight a day

Petra in July

35 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Chiang MaiPetra

Where the figures come from

Petra's temperatures are measured 34 km from the centre, at Ma'An.

Petra's station stands 219 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Petra 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). Petra: 1991-2020 normals, Ma'An (33.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChiang MaiPetra
Official languageThaiArabic
CurrencyBaht (THB)Jordanian Dinar (JOD)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzBCFGJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+3
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199911
Elevation310 m850 m
Main airportChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasureChiang MaiPetra
City population1,198,000-
People per km²2,958-
Museums within 10 km62
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Chiang Mai or Petra 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. 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.