VacationSelector
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills

Photos: Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License; Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Chiang Mai or Puerto Vallarta?

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 Puerto Vallarta for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Puerto Vallarta’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 Vallarta 85: Puerto Vallarta leads by 79 points.
Food & drink. Chiang Mai 78, Puerto Vallarta 62: Chiang Mai leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Chiang Mai 65, Puerto Vallarta 28: Chiang Mai leads by 37 points.
Nightlife. Chiang Mai 45, Puerto Vallarta 66: Puerto Vallarta leads by 21 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chiang Mai 73, Puerto Vallarta 76: Puerto Vallarta leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Chiang Mai 48, Puerto Vallarta 55: Puerto Vallarta leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Chiang Mai 55, Puerto Vallarta 65: Puerto Vallarta leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Chiang Mai 38, Puerto Vallarta 45: Puerto Vallarta leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Chiang Mai 62, Puerto Vallarta 42: Chiang Mai leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Chiang Mai 90, Puerto Vallarta 60: Chiang Mai leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chiang Mai 30, Puerto Vallarta 32: Puerto Vallarta leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chiang Mai 82, Puerto Vallarta 52: Chiang Mai leads by 30 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Chiang Mai
56match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

Puerto Vallarta
56match

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

Puerto Vallarta in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
209 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

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Chiang MaiPuerto Vallarta

Where the figures come from

Puerto Vallarta 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 Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureChiang MaiPuerto Vallarta
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 m101 m
Main airportChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-9 days

By the numbers

MeasureChiang MaiPuerto Vallarta
City population1,198,000224,166
People per km²2,9584,311
Museums within 10 km62
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Vallarta 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.