VacationSelector
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city
The main beach with the green hills behind, Sayulita
SayulitaThe main beach with the green hills behind

Photos: Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License; Sayulita by Luisalvaz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Chiang Mai or Sayulita?

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

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • food and drink

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

Choose Sayulita for

  • beaches
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Sayulita’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, Sayulita 80: Sayulita leads by 74 points.
Food & drink. Chiang Mai 78, Sayulita 42: Chiang Mai leads by 36 points.
Culture & sights. Chiang Mai 65, Sayulita 7: Chiang Mai leads by 58 points.
Nightlife. Chiang Mai 45, Sayulita 33: Chiang Mai leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chiang Mai 73, Sayulita 72: Chiang Mai leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Chiang Mai 48, Sayulita 42: Chiang Mai leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Chiang Mai 55, Sayulita 42: Chiang Mai leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Chiang Mai 38, Sayulita 48: Sayulita leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Chiang Mai 62, Sayulita 33: Chiang Mai leads by 29 points.
Affordability. Chiang Mai 90, Sayulita 45: Chiang Mai leads by 45 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chiang Mai 30, Sayulita 12: Chiang Mai leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chiang Mai 82, Sayulita 58: Chiang Mai leads by 24 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chiang Mai and Sayulita.

Your match

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

Chiang Mai
Best match
56match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

Sayulita
43match

Wins on beaches 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
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Sayulita in July

29 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
342 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Chiang MaiSayulita

Where the figures come from

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

Before you go

MeasureChiang MaiSayulita
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 m2 m
Main airportChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)29 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-9 days

By the numbers

MeasureChiang MaiSayulita
City population1,198,0003,390
People per km²2,958-
Museums within 10 km60
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 Sayulita 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.