VacationSelector
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city
Playa Manzanillo, Puerto Escondido
Puerto EscondidoPlaya Manzanillo

Photos: Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License; Puerto Escondido by theklan, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Chiang Mai or Puerto Escondido?

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
  • shopping
  • food and drink

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

Choose Puerto Escondido for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Puerto Escondido’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, Puerto Escondido 82: Puerto Escondido leads by 76 points.
Food & drink. Chiang Mai 78, Puerto Escondido 48: Chiang Mai leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Chiang Mai 65, Puerto Escondido 8: Chiang Mai leads by 57 points.
Nightlife. Chiang Mai and Puerto Escondido are level on 45.
Nature & outdoors. Chiang Mai 73, Puerto Escondido 78: Puerto Escondido leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Chiang Mai 48, Puerto Escondido 35: Chiang Mai leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Chiang Mai 55, Puerto Escondido 42: Chiang Mai leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Chiang Mai 38, Puerto Escondido 40: Puerto Escondido leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Chiang Mai 62, Puerto Escondido 22: Chiang Mai leads by 40 points.
Affordability. Chiang Mai 90, Puerto Escondido 68: Chiang Mai leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chiang Mai 30, Puerto Escondido 12: Chiang Mai leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chiang Mai 82, Puerto Escondido 58: Chiang Mai leads by 24 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chiang Mai and Puerto Escondido.

Your match

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

Chiang Mai
Best match
56match

Wins on culture and sights and shopping with your weighting.

Puerto Escondido
45match

Wins on beaches 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
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Puerto Escondido in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
116 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Chiang MaiPuerto Escondido

Where the figures come from

Puerto Escondido's temperatures are measured 66 km from the centre, at Puerto Angel, Oax..

Puerto Escondido 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). Puerto Escondido: 1991-2020 normals, Puerto Angel, Oax. (65.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChiang MaiPuerto Escondido
Official languageThaiSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyBaht (THB)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199911
Elevation310 m60 m
Main airportChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsPuerto Escondido International Airport (PXM)2 km from centre10 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-9 days

By the numbers

MeasureChiang MaiPuerto Escondido
City population1,198,00029,903
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 Puerto Escondido 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. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.