VacationSelector
Cloud Gate in Millennium Park, Chicago
ChicagoCloud Gate in Millennium Park
The Sanctuary of Truth by the sea, Pattaya
PattayaThe Sanctuary of Truth by the sea

Photos: Chicago by Jesus Toledo, Pexels License; Pattaya by Matrix, Pexels License.

Chicago or Pattaya?

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 Chicago for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

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

Choose Pattaya for

  • prices
  • wellness
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Pattaya’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. Chicago 50, Pattaya 66: Pattaya leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. Chicago 80, Pattaya 58: Chicago leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Chicago 78, Pattaya 30: Chicago leads by 48 points.
Nightlife. Chicago 77, Pattaya 76: Chicago leads by 1 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chicago 48, Pattaya 40: Chicago leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Chicago 42, Pattaya 52: Pattaya leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Chicago 78, Pattaya 55: Chicago leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Chicago 72, Pattaya 36: Chicago leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Chicago 70, Pattaya 42: Chicago leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Chicago 33, Pattaya 84: Pattaya leads by 51 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chicago 82, Pattaya 30: Chicago leads by 52 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chicago 33, Pattaya 58: Pattaya leads by 25 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chicago and Pattaya.

Your match

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

Chicago
Best match
62match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights with your weighting.

Pattaya
52match

Wins on prices and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Chicago in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
102 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Pattaya in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
102 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
ChicagoPattaya

Where the figures come from

Pattaya's temperatures are measured 31 km from the centre, at Sattahip.

Pattaya 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.

Pattaya's sunshine is measured 86 km from the centre, at Bangna Agromet / Ban Khlong Samrong.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chicago: 1991-2020 normals, Chicago Midway Airport (14.5 km from centre). Pattaya: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1961-1990, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sattahip (31.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChicagoPattaya
Official language-Thai
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Baht (THB)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number911Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation179 m35 m
Main airportChicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)25 km from centre274 non-stop destinationsSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)83 km from centre150 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureChicagoPattaya
City population2,746,388119,532
People per km²4,529-
Museums within 10 km440
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 month12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Chicago or Pattaya 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. 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.