VacationSelector
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city
Taipei 101 and the skyline from Elephant Mountain, Taipei
TaipeiTaipei 101 and the skyline from Elephant Mountain

Photos: Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License; Taipei by Another Believer, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Chiang Mai or Taipei?

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
  • wellness

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

Choose Taipei for

  • getting around
  • beaches
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Taipei’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, Taipei 40: Taipei leads by 34 points.
Food & drink. Chiang Mai 78, Taipei 88: Taipei leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Chiang Mai 65, Taipei 68: Taipei leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Chiang Mai 45, Taipei 58: Taipei leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chiang Mai 73, Taipei 78: Taipei leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Chiang Mai 48, Taipei 76: Taipei leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Chiang Mai 55, Taipei 72: Taipei leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Chiang Mai 38, Taipei 86: Taipei leads by 48 points.
Shopping & style. Chiang Mai 62, Taipei 70: Taipei leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Chiang Mai 90, Taipei 66: Chiang Mai leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chiang Mai 30, Taipei 55: Taipei leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chiang Mai 82, Taipei 80: Chiang Mai leads by 2 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chiang Mai and Taipei.

Your match

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

Chiang Mai
56match

Wins on prices and wellness with your weighting.

Taipei
Best match
70match

Wins on getting around 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
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Taipei in July

35 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
288 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Chiang MaiTaipei

Where the figures come from

Taipei 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). Taipei: 1992-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sungshan / Taipei (3.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChiang MaiTaipei
Official languageThaiTaiwanese Sign Language, Amis, Taiwanese Hokkien, Rukai, Bunun, Kanakanavu, Standard Taiwanese Mandarin, Paiwan, Yami, Atayal, Saaroa, Kavalan, Tsou, Seediq, Puyuma, Saisiyat, Sakizaya, Taiwanese Hakka, Truku, Matsu dialect, Kinmen dialect, Wuqiu dialect
CurrencyBaht (THB)New Taiwan Dollar (TWD)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+8
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199110 or 112 or 119
Elevation310 m10 m
Main airportChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsTaiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TPE)33 km from centre

By the numbers

MeasureChiang MaiTaipei
City population1,198,0002,429,429
People per km²2,9588,938
Museums within 10 km669
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Chiang Mai or Taipei 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.