VacationSelector
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city
The old railway depot in the snow, Steamboat Springs
Steamboat SpringsThe old railway depot in the snow

Photos: Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License; Steamboat Springs by Jeffrey Beall, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Chiang Mai or Steamboat Springs?

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
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

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

Choose Steamboat Springs for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Steamboat Springs’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, Steamboat Springs 7: Steamboat Springs leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Chiang Mai 78, Steamboat Springs 30: Chiang Mai leads by 48 points.
Culture & sights. Chiang Mai 65, Steamboat Springs 14: Chiang Mai leads by 51 points.
Nightlife. Chiang Mai 45, Steamboat Springs 20: Chiang Mai leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chiang Mai 73, Steamboat Springs 88: Steamboat Springs leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Chiang Mai 48, Steamboat Springs 12: Chiang Mai leads by 36 points.
Good for families. Chiang Mai 55, Steamboat Springs 62: Steamboat Springs leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Chiang Mai 38, Steamboat Springs 46: Steamboat Springs leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Chiang Mai 62, Steamboat Springs 22: Chiang Mai leads by 40 points.
Affordability. Chiang Mai 90, Steamboat Springs 17: Chiang Mai leads by 73 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chiang Mai 30, Steamboat Springs 28: Chiang Mai leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chiang Mai 82, Steamboat Springs 70: Chiang Mai leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chiang Mai and Steamboat Springs.

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 culture and sights with your weighting.

Steamboat Springs
35match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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

Steamboat Springs in July

28 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
31 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Chiang MaiSteamboat Springs

Where the figures come from

Steamboat Springs 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). Steamboat Springs: 2011-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Steamboat Springs / Steamboat Ii (5.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChiang MaiSteamboat Springs
Official languageThai-
CurrencyBaht (THB)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199911
Elevation310 m2,052 m
Main airportChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsYampa Valley Airport (HDN)33 km from centre17 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-12 days

By the numbers

MeasureChiang MaiSteamboat Springs
City population1,198,00013,224
People per km²2,958503
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 Steamboat Springs 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.