VacationSelector
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture

Photos: Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License; Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Chiang Mai or Playa del Carmen?

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
  • wellness

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

Choose Playa del Carmen for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Playa del Carmen’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, Playa del Carmen 88: Playa del Carmen leads by 82 points.
Food & drink. Chiang Mai 78, Playa del Carmen 52: Chiang Mai leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Chiang Mai 65, Playa del Carmen 12: Chiang Mai leads by 53 points.
Nightlife. Chiang Mai 45, Playa del Carmen 66: Playa del Carmen leads by 21 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chiang Mai 73, Playa del Carmen 74: Playa del Carmen leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Chiang Mai 48, Playa del Carmen 72: Playa del Carmen leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Chiang Mai 55, Playa del Carmen 78: Playa del Carmen leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Chiang Mai 38, Playa del Carmen 55: Playa del Carmen leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Chiang Mai 62, Playa del Carmen 38: Chiang Mai leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Chiang Mai 90, Playa del Carmen 52: Chiang Mai leads by 38 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chiang Mai 30, Playa del Carmen 22: Chiang Mai leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chiang Mai 82, Playa del Carmen 54: Chiang Mai leads by 28 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chiang Mai and Playa del Carmen.

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.

Playa del Carmen
55match

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

Playa del Carmen in July

29 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
96 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Chiang MaiPlaya del Carmen

Where the figures come from

Playa del Carmen has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chiang Mai: 1991-2020 normals, Chiang Mai (0.6 km from centre). Playa del Carmen: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureChiang MaiPlaya del Carmen
Official languageThaiSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyBaht (THB)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199911
Elevation310 m8 m
Main airportChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-9 days

By the numbers

MeasureChiang MaiPlaya del Carmen
City population1,198,000304,942
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 Playa del Carmen 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.