VacationSelector
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city
Angkor Wat beyond the palms of the causeway, Siem Reap
Siem ReapAngkor Wat beyond the palms of the causeway

Photos: Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License; Siem Reap by allPhoto Bangkok, Pexels License.

Chiang Mai or Siem Reap?

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

  • food and drink
  • nature and the outdoors
  • shopping

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

Choose Siem Reap for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Siem Reap’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, Siem Reap 5: Chiang Mai leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Chiang Mai 78, Siem Reap 45: Chiang Mai leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. Chiang Mai 65, Siem Reap 88: Siem Reap leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Chiang Mai 45, Siem Reap 42: Chiang Mai leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chiang Mai 73, Siem Reap 40: Chiang Mai leads by 33 points.
Day trips. Chiang Mai 48, Siem Reap 55: Siem Reap leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Chiang Mai 55, Siem Reap 35: Chiang Mai leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Chiang Mai 38, Siem Reap 30: Chiang Mai leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Chiang Mai 62, Siem Reap 38: Chiang Mai leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Chiang Mai 90, Siem Reap 88: Chiang Mai leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chiang Mai 30, Siem Reap 32: Siem Reap leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chiang Mai 82, Siem Reap 60: Chiang Mai leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chiang Mai and Siem Reap.

Your match

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

Chiang Mai
Best match
56match

Wins on food and drink and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Siem Reap
47match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips 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

Siem Reap in July

30 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
197 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Chiang MaiSiem Reap

Where the figures come from

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

Before you go

MeasureChiang MaiSiem Reap
Official languageThaiKhmer
CurrencyBaht (THB)Riel (KHR)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzACG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+7
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199Police 117, ambulance 119, fire 118
Elevation310 m18 m
Main airportChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsSiem Reap-Angkor International Airport (SAI)39 km from centre14 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-21 days

By the numbers

MeasureChiang MaiSiem Reap
City population1,198,000147,866
People per km²2,958-
Museums within 10 km66
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01

Where else could you go?

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