VacationSelector
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city
Rabelo boats on the Douro and the Ribeira, Porto
PortoRabelo boats on the Douro and the Ribeira

Photos: Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License; Porto by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Chiang Mai or Porto?

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 Porto for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Porto’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, Porto 40: Porto leads by 34 points.
Food & drink. Chiang Mai 78, Porto 70: Chiang Mai leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Chiang Mai 65, Porto 68: Porto leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Chiang Mai 45, Porto 65: Porto leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chiang Mai 73, Porto 64: Chiang Mai leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Chiang Mai 48, Porto 79: Porto leads by 31 points.
Good for families. Chiang Mai 55, Porto 52: Chiang Mai leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Chiang Mai 38, Porto 66: Porto leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. Chiang Mai 62, Porto 52: Chiang Mai leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Chiang Mai 90, Porto 62: Chiang Mai leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chiang Mai 30, Porto 52: Porto leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chiang Mai 82, Porto 34: Chiang Mai leads by 48 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chiang Mai and Porto.

Your match

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

Chiang Mai
56match

Wins on wellness and prices with your weighting.

Porto
Best match
59match

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

Porto in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
22 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
17 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Chiang MaiPorto

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chiang Mai: 1991-2020 normals, Chiang Mai (0.6 km from centre). Porto: 1991-2020 normals, Porto / Serra Do Pilar (2.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChiang MaiPorto
Official languageThaiPortuguese
CurrencyBaht (THB)Euro (EUR)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199112
Elevation310 m104 m
Main airportChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsFrancisco de Sá Carneiro Airport (OPO)12 km from centre134 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-14 days

By the numbers

MeasureChiang MaiPorto
City population1,198,000273,476
People per km²2,9586,606
Museums within 10 km642
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km03
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

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