VacationSelector
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city
Bell Rock outside Sedona, Sedona
SedonaBell Rock outside Sedona

Photos: Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License; Sedona by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Chiang Mai or Sedona?

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
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Sedona for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Sedona’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, Sedona 16: Sedona leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Chiang Mai 78, Sedona 33: Chiang Mai leads by 45 points.
Culture & sights. Chiang Mai 65, Sedona 20: Chiang Mai leads by 45 points.
Nightlife. Chiang Mai 45, Sedona 8: Chiang Mai leads by 37 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chiang Mai 73, Sedona 93: Sedona leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Chiang Mai 48, Sedona 55: Sedona leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Chiang Mai 55, Sedona 42: Chiang Mai leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Chiang Mai 38, Sedona 22: Chiang Mai leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Chiang Mai 62, Sedona 34: Chiang Mai leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Chiang Mai 90, Sedona 18: Chiang Mai leads by 72 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chiang Mai 30, Sedona 13: Chiang Mai leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chiang Mai and Sedona are level on 82.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chiang Mai and Sedona.

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.

Sedona
36match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and beaches 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

Sedona in July

34 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
51 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Chiang MaiSedona

Where the figures come from

Sedona's station stands 153 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Sedona 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). Sedona: 2009-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sedona / West Sedona (1.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChiang MaiSedona
Official languageThai-
CurrencyBaht (THB)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-7
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199911
Elevation310 m1,319 m
Main airportChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsPhoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)160 km from centre148 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-12 days

By the numbers

MeasureChiang MaiSedona
City population1,198,0009,684
People per km²2,958195
Museums within 10 km60
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Chiang Mai or Sedona 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.