VacationSelector
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city
The old Bath House in the Government Gardens, Rotorua
RotoruaThe old Bath House in the Government Gardens

Photos: Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License; Rotorua by W. Bulach, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Chiang Mai or Rotorua?

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
  • food and drink
  • shopping

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

Choose Rotorua for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Rotorua’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, Rotorua 33: Rotorua leads by 27 points.
Food & drink. Chiang Mai 78, Rotorua 33: Chiang Mai leads by 45 points.
Culture & sights. Chiang Mai 65, Rotorua 38: Chiang Mai leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Chiang Mai 45, Rotorua 14: Chiang Mai leads by 31 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chiang Mai 73, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Chiang Mai 48, Rotorua 45: Chiang Mai leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Chiang Mai 55, Rotorua 68: Rotorua leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Chiang Mai 38, Rotorua 30: Chiang Mai leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Chiang Mai 62, Rotorua 22: Chiang Mai leads by 40 points.
Affordability. Chiang Mai 90, Rotorua 36: Chiang Mai leads by 54 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chiang Mai and Rotorua are level on 30.
Wellness & relaxation. Chiang Mai 82, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chiang Mai and Rotorua.

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 food and drink with your weighting.

Rotorua
43match

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

Rotorua in July

11 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
113 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
15 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Chiang MaiRotorua

Where the figures come from

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

Before you go

MeasureChiang MaiRotorua
Official languageThaiEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyBaht (THB)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199111
Elevation310 m280 m
Main airportChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsRotorua Regional Airport (ROT)7 km from centre3 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-12 days

By the numbers

MeasureChiang MaiRotorua
City population1,198,00058,500
People per km²2,95822
Museums within 10 km61
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

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