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 the old town, San Miguel de Allende
San Miguel de AllendeA cobbled street of painted houses in the old town

Photos: Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License; San Miguel de Allende by Russ Bowling, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Chiang Mai or San Miguel de Allende?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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

Choose San Miguel de Allende for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on San Miguel de Allende’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 Miguel de Allende 4: Chiang Mai leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Chiang Mai 78, San Miguel de Allende 62: Chiang Mai leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Chiang Mai 65, San Miguel de Allende 62: Chiang Mai leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Chiang Mai 45, San Miguel de Allende 38: Chiang Mai leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chiang Mai 73, San Miguel de Allende 40: Chiang Mai leads by 33 points.
Day trips. Chiang Mai 48, San Miguel de Allende 77: San Miguel de Allende leads by 29 points.
Good for families. Chiang Mai 55, San Miguel de Allende 32: Chiang Mai leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Chiang Mai 38, San Miguel de Allende 48: San Miguel de Allende leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Chiang Mai 62, San Miguel de Allende 55: Chiang Mai leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Chiang Mai 90, San Miguel de Allende 50: Chiang Mai leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chiang Mai 30, San Miguel de Allende 40: San Miguel de Allende leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chiang Mai 82, San Miguel de Allende 66: Chiang Mai leads by 16 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chiang Mai and San Miguel de Allende.

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 nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

San Miguel de Allende
48match

Wins on day trips and getting around 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
13 hdaylight a day

San Miguel de Allende in July

29 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
132 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Chiang MaiSan Miguel de Allende

Where the figures come from

San Miguel de Allende's temperatures are measured 54 km from the centre, at Guanajuato, Gto..

San Miguel de Allende 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). San Miguel de Allende: 1991-2020 normals, Guanajuato, Gto. (53.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChiang MaiSan Miguel de Allende
Official languageThaiSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyBaht (THB)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199911
Elevation310 m1,900 m
Main airportChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsGuanajuato International Airport (BJX)77 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-9 days

By the numbers

MeasureChiang MaiSan Miguel de Allende
City population1,198,00069,811
People per km²2,958-
Museums within 10 km62
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Chiang Mai or San Miguel de Allende 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. 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.