VacationSelector
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city
Palms on a white beach at Cap Cana, Punta Cana
Punta CanaPalms on a white beach at Cap Cana

Photos: Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License; Punta Cana by Mary Mark Ockerbloom, CC0.

Chiang Mai or Punta Cana?

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
  • food and drink
  • prices

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

Choose Punta Cana for

  • beaches
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Punta Cana’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, Punta Cana 94: Punta Cana leads by 88 points.
Food & drink. Chiang Mai 78, Punta Cana 30: Chiang Mai leads by 48 points.
Culture & sights. Chiang Mai 65, Punta Cana 8: Chiang Mai leads by 57 points.
Nightlife. Chiang Mai 45, Punta Cana 40: Chiang Mai leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chiang Mai 73, Punta Cana 52: Chiang Mai leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Chiang Mai 48, Punta Cana 35: Chiang Mai leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Chiang Mai 55, Punta Cana 68: Punta Cana leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Chiang Mai 38, Punta Cana 15: Chiang Mai leads by 23 points.
Shopping & style. Chiang Mai 62, Punta Cana 30: Chiang Mai leads by 32 points.
Affordability. Chiang Mai 90, Punta Cana 44: Chiang Mai leads by 46 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chiang Mai 30, Punta Cana 15: Chiang Mai leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chiang Mai 82, Punta Cana 52: Chiang Mai leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chiang Mai and Punta Cana.

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 food and drink with your weighting.

Punta Cana
40match

Wins on beaches and families 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

Punta Cana in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
96 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Chiang MaiPunta Cana

Where the figures come from

Punta Cana 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). Punta Cana: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Punta Cana (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChiang MaiPunta Cana
Official languageThaiSpanish
CurrencyBaht (THB)Dominican Peso (DOP)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-4
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199911
Elevation310 m28 m
Main airportChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsPunta Cana International Airport (PUJ)1 km from centre93 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasureChiang MaiPunta Cana
City population1,198,000138,919
People per km²2,958292
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 Punta Cana 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.