VacationSelector
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city
A cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan, San Juan
San JuanA cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan

Photos: Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License; San Juan by Mohan Nannapaneni, Pexels License.

Chiang Mai or San Juan?

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
  • food and drink

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

Choose San Juan for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on San Juan’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, San Juan 84: San Juan leads by 78 points.
Food & drink. Chiang Mai 78, San Juan 66: Chiang Mai leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Chiang Mai 65, San Juan 64: Chiang Mai leads by 1 points.
Nightlife. Chiang Mai 45, San Juan 70: San Juan leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chiang Mai 73, San Juan 74: San Juan leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Chiang Mai 48, San Juan 52: San Juan leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Chiang Mai 55, San Juan 58: San Juan leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Chiang Mai and San Juan are level on 38.
Shopping & style. Chiang Mai 62, San Juan 50: Chiang Mai leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Chiang Mai 90, San Juan 38: Chiang Mai leads by 52 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chiang Mai 30, San Juan 55: San Juan leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chiang Mai 82, San Juan 40: Chiang Mai leads by 42 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chiang Mai and San Juan.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Chiang Mai
56match

Wins on prices and wellness with your weighting.

San Juan
57match

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

San Juan in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
153 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Chiang MaiSan Juan

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chiang Mai: 1991-2020 normals, Chiang Mai (0.6 km from centre). San Juan: 1991-2020 normals, San Juan / Int., Puerto Rico (12.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChiang MaiSan Juan
Official languageThaiSpanish, English
CurrencyBaht (THB)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-4
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199911
Elevation310 m3 m
Main airportChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsLuis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU)12 km from centre59 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-21 days

By the numbers

MeasureChiang MaiSan Juan
City population1,198,000342,259
People per km²2,9582,847
Museums within 10 km618
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 San Juan 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.