VacationSelector
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city
People's Square (Narodni trg), Zadar
ZadarPeople's Square (Narodni trg)

Photos: Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License; Zadar by Böhringer Friedrich, CC BY-SA 2.5, cropped.

Chiang Mai or Zadar?

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
  • prices
  • shopping

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

Choose Zadar for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Zadar’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, Zadar 72: Zadar leads by 66 points.
Food & drink. Chiang Mai 78, Zadar 45: Chiang Mai leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. Chiang Mai 65, Zadar 55: Chiang Mai leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Chiang Mai 45, Zadar 38: Chiang Mai leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chiang Mai 73, Zadar 82: Zadar leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Chiang Mai 48, Zadar 70: Zadar leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Chiang Mai and Zadar are level on 55.
Getting around. Chiang Mai 38, Zadar 58: Zadar leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Chiang Mai 62, Zadar 27: Chiang Mai leads by 35 points.
Affordability. Chiang Mai 90, Zadar 52: Chiang Mai leads by 38 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chiang Mai 30, Zadar 28: Chiang Mai leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chiang Mai 82, Zadar 35: Chiang Mai leads by 47 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chiang Mai and Zadar.

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 prices with your weighting.

Zadar
51match

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

Zadar in July

31 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
29 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Chiang MaiZadar

Where the figures come from

Zadar 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). Zadar: 1999-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zadar / Zemunik (9.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChiang MaiZadar
Official languageThaiCroatian
CurrencyBaht (THB)Euro (EUR)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199112
Elevation310 m5 m
Main airportChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsZadar Airport (ZAD)10 km from centre66 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-14 days

By the numbers

MeasureChiang MaiZadar
City population1,198,00070,779
People per km²2,958-
Museums within 10 km61
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C-4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Chiang Mai or Zadar 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.