VacationSelector
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Chiang Mai or Valparaiso?

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

  • wellness
  • shopping
  • prices

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Valparaiso’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, Valparaiso 36: Valparaiso leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Chiang Mai 78, Valparaiso 50: Chiang Mai leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Chiang Mai 65, Valparaiso 62: Chiang Mai leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Chiang Mai 45, Valparaiso 56: Valparaiso leads by 11 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chiang Mai 73, Valparaiso 60: Chiang Mai leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Chiang Mai 48, Valparaiso 63: Valparaiso leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Chiang Mai 55, Valparaiso 33: Chiang Mai leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Chiang Mai 38, Valparaiso 44: Valparaiso leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Chiang Mai 62, Valparaiso 30: Chiang Mai leads by 32 points.
Affordability. Chiang Mai 90, Valparaiso 60: Chiang Mai leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chiang Mai 30, Valparaiso 38: Valparaiso leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chiang Mai 82, Valparaiso 18: Chiang Mai leads by 64 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Chiang Mai
Best match
56match

Wins on wellness and shopping with your weighting.

Valparaiso
46match

Wins on beaches 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
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Valparaiso in July

15 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
71 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Chiang MaiValparaiso

Where the figures come from

Valparaiso 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). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChiang MaiValparaiso
Official languageThaiSpanish
CurrencyBaht (THB)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation310 m21 m
Main airportChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-16 days

By the numbers

MeasureChiang MaiValparaiso
City population1,198,000296,655
People per km²2,9586,180
Museums within 10 km617
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

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