VacationSelector
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city
Punta del Este

Photos: Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License.

Chiang Mai or Punta del Este?

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

  • prices
  • wellness
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Punta del Este for

  • beaches
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Punta del Este’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 del Este 72: Punta del Este leads by 66 points.
Food & drink. Chiang Mai 78, Punta del Este 45: Chiang Mai leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. Chiang Mai 65, Punta del Este 22: Chiang Mai leads by 43 points.
Nightlife. Chiang Mai 45, Punta del Este 60: Punta del Este leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chiang Mai 73, Punta del Este 55: Chiang Mai leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Chiang Mai 48, Punta del Este 45: Chiang Mai leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Chiang Mai and Punta del Este are level on 55.
Getting around. Chiang Mai 38, Punta del Este 35: Chiang Mai leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Chiang Mai 62, Punta del Este 42: Chiang Mai leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Chiang Mai 90, Punta del Este 20: Chiang Mai leads by 70 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chiang Mai 30, Punta del Este 22: Chiang Mai leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chiang Mai 82, Punta del Este 32: Chiang Mai leads by 50 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chiang Mai and Punta del Este.

Your match

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

Chiang Mai
Best match
56match

Wins on prices and wellness with your weighting.

Punta del Este
42match

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

Punta del Este in July

15 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
101 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Chiang MaiPunta del Este

Where the figures come from

Punta del Este's temperatures are measured 79 km from the centre, at Rocha.

Punta del Este 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 del Este: 1991-2020 normals, Rocha (78.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChiang MaiPunta del Este
Official languageThai-
CurrencyBaht (THB)Peso Uruguayo (UYU)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzCFIL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-3
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199911
Elevation310 m11 m
Main airportChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsCapitan Corbeta CA Curbelo International Airport (PDP)18 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-15 days

By the numbers

MeasureChiang MaiPunta del Este
City population1,198,0009,277
People per km²2,958455
Museums within 10 km65
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Chiang Mai or Punta del Este 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.