VacationSelector
Beira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower, Colombo
ColomboBeira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower
The Sanctuary of Truth by the sea, Pattaya
PattayaThe Sanctuary of Truth by the sea

Photos: Colombo by Mohamed Ansaf, Pexels License; Pattaya by Matrix, Pexels License.

Colombo 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 Colombo for

  • culture and sights
  • food and drink
  • shopping

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

Choose Pattaya for

  • nightlife
  • families
  • 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. Colombo 55, Pattaya 66: Pattaya leads by 11 points.
Food & drink. Colombo 66, Pattaya 58: Colombo leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Colombo 45, Pattaya 30: Colombo leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Colombo 35, Pattaya 76: Pattaya leads by 41 points.
Nature & outdoors. Colombo 32, Pattaya 40: Pattaya leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Colombo 50, Pattaya 52: Pattaya leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Colombo 35, Pattaya 55: Pattaya leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Colombo 35, Pattaya 36: Pattaya leads by 1 points.
Shopping & style. Colombo 45, Pattaya 42: Colombo leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Colombo 78, Pattaya 84: Pattaya leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Colombo and Pattaya are level on 30.
Wellness & relaxation. Colombo 48, Pattaya 58: Pattaya leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Colombo and Pattaya.

Your match

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

Colombo
46match

Wins on culture and sights and food and drink with your weighting.

Pattaya
Best match
52match

Wins on nightlife and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Colombo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
128 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
ColomboPattaya

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. Colombo: 1991-2020 normals, Colombo (3 km from centre). Pattaya: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1961-1990, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sattahip (31.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureColomboPattaya
Official languageTamil, SinhalaThai
CurrencySri Lanka Rupee (LKR)Baht (THB)
SocketsGM230 V, 50 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+5:30UTC+7
Emergency numberPolice 119, ambulance 110, fire 110Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation1 m35 m
Main airportBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)28 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)83 km from centre150 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasureColomboPattaya
City population647,557119,532
People per km²17,361-
Museums within 10 km100
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Colombo 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). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.