VacationSelector
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city
Barlas Island in Honda Bay, Puerto Princesa
Puerto PrincesaBarlas Island in Honda Bay

Photos: Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License; Puerto Princesa by Ray in Manila, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Chiang Mai or Puerto Princesa?

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
  • wellness

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

Choose Puerto Princesa for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Puerto Princesa’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 Princesa 58: Puerto Princesa leads by 52 points.
Food & drink. Chiang Mai 78, Puerto Princesa 38: Chiang Mai leads by 40 points.
Culture & sights. Chiang Mai 65, Puerto Princesa 22: Chiang Mai leads by 43 points.
Nightlife. Chiang Mai 45, Puerto Princesa 26: Chiang Mai leads by 19 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chiang Mai 73, Puerto Princesa 80: Puerto Princesa leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Chiang Mai 48, Puerto Princesa 12: Chiang Mai leads by 36 points.
Good for families. Chiang Mai 55, Puerto Princesa 45: Chiang Mai leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Chiang Mai 38, Puerto Princesa 30: Chiang Mai leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Chiang Mai 62, Puerto Princesa 20: Chiang Mai leads by 42 points.
Affordability. Chiang Mai 90, Puerto Princesa 78: Chiang Mai leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chiang Mai 30, Puerto Princesa 10: Chiang Mai leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chiang Mai 82, Puerto Princesa 40: Chiang Mai leads by 42 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chiang Mai and Puerto Princesa.

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 Princesa
38match

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 Princesa in July

29 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
216 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 MaiPuerto Princesa

Where the figures come from

Puerto Princesa 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). Puerto Princesa: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureChiang MaiPuerto Princesa
Official languageThaiEnglish, Filipino, Taglish
CurrencyBaht (THB)Philippine Peso (PHP)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzABC220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+8
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199911
Elevation310 m98 m
Main airportChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsPuerto Princesa International Airport / PAF Antonio Bautista Air Base (PPS)2 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-18 days

By the numbers

MeasureChiang MaiPuerto Princesa
City population1,198,000316,384
People per km²2,958133
Museums within 10 km61
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 Princesa 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.