VacationSelector
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket

Photos: Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License; Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0.

Chiang Mai or Phuket?

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

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • shopping

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

Choose Phuket for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Phuket’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, Phuket 90: Phuket leads by 84 points.
Food & drink. Chiang Mai 78, Phuket 66: Chiang Mai leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Chiang Mai 65, Phuket 35: Chiang Mai leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Chiang Mai 45, Phuket 72: Phuket leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chiang Mai 73, Phuket 80: Phuket leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Chiang Mai 48, Phuket 45: Chiang Mai leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Chiang Mai 55, Phuket 65: Phuket leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Chiang Mai 38, Phuket 22: Chiang Mai leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Chiang Mai 62, Phuket 42: Chiang Mai leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Chiang Mai 90, Phuket 68: Chiang Mai leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chiang Mai 30, Phuket 20: Chiang Mai leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chiang Mai and Phuket are level on 82.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chiang Mai and Phuket.

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 culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

Phuket
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

Phuket in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
287 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Chiang MaiPhuket

Where the figures come from

Phuket's temperatures are measured 27 km from the centre, at Phuket Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chiang Mai: 1991-2020 normals, Chiang Mai (0.6 km from centre). Phuket: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1961-1990) normals, Phuket Airport (26.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChiang MaiPhuket
Official languageThaiThai
CurrencyBaht (THB)Baht (THB)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+7
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation310 m19 m
Main airportChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasureChiang MaiPhuket
City population1,198,00077,610
People per km²2,9586,468
Museums within 10 km62
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 Phuket 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. 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.