VacationSelector
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city
Sugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de JaneiroSugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay

Photos: Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License; Rio de Janeiro by Arne Müseler, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, cropped.

Chiang Mai or Rio de Janeiro?

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

  • wellness
  • prices
  • food and drink

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

Choose Rio de Janeiro for

  • beaches
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Rio de Janeiro’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, Rio de Janeiro 92: Rio de Janeiro leads by 86 points.
Food & drink. Chiang Mai 78, Rio de Janeiro 62: Chiang Mai leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Chiang Mai 65, Rio de Janeiro 68: Rio de Janeiro leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Chiang Mai 45, Rio de Janeiro 80: Rio de Janeiro leads by 35 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chiang Mai 73, Rio de Janeiro 90: Rio de Janeiro leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Chiang Mai 48, Rio de Janeiro 50: Rio de Janeiro leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Chiang Mai 55, Rio de Janeiro 50: Chiang Mai leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Chiang Mai 38, Rio de Janeiro 44: Rio de Janeiro leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Chiang Mai 62, Rio de Janeiro 50: Chiang Mai leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Chiang Mai 90, Rio de Janeiro 60: Chiang Mai leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chiang Mai 30, Rio de Janeiro 66: Rio de Janeiro leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chiang Mai 82, Rio de Janeiro 30: Chiang Mai leads by 52 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Chiang Mai
56match

Wins on wellness and prices with your weighting.

Rio de Janeiro
Best match
62match

Wins on beaches and live music and the arts 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

Rio de Janeiro in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
45 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
22 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Chiang MaiRio de Janeiro

Where the figures come from

Rio de Janeiro 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). Rio de Janeiro: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureChiang MaiRio de Janeiro
Official languageThaiPortuguese
CurrencyBaht (THB)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-3
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation310 m31 m
Main airportChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsRio de Janeiro Galeão – Tom Jobim International Airport (GIG)12 km from centre54 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-14 days

By the numbers

MeasureChiang MaiRio de Janeiro
City population1,198,0006,211,223
People per km²2,9584,930
Museums within 10 km669
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km03
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 Rio de Janeiro 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.