VacationSelector
The Dutch Reformed Church in Galle Fort, Galle
GalleThe Dutch Reformed Church in Galle Fort
The Sanctuary of Truth by the sea, Pattaya
PattayaThe Sanctuary of Truth by the sea

Photos: Galle by Francisco Anzola, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Pattaya by Matrix, Pexels License.

Galle 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 Galle for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights
  • beaches

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

Choose Pattaya for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • families

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. Galle 80, Pattaya 66: Galle leads by 14 points.
Food & drink. Galle 50, Pattaya 58: Pattaya leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Galle 55, Pattaya 30: Galle leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Galle 18, Pattaya 76: Pattaya leads by 58 points.
Nature & outdoors. Galle 66, Pattaya 40: Galle leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Galle 50, Pattaya 52: Pattaya leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Galle 42, Pattaya 55: Pattaya leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Galle 35, Pattaya 36: Pattaya leads by 1 points.
Shopping & style. Galle 33, Pattaya 42: Pattaya leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Galle 72, Pattaya 84: Pattaya leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Galle 10, Pattaya 30: Pattaya leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Galle 70, Pattaya 58: Galle leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Galle and Pattaya.

Your match

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

Galle
48match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and culture and sights with your weighting.

Pattaya
Best match
52match

Wins on nightlife and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Galle in July

28 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
116 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
12 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
GallePattaya

Where the figures come from

Galle has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

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. Galle: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Pattaya: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1961-1990, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sattahip (31.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGallePattaya
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
Elevation0 m35 m
Main airportBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)133 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)83 km from centre150 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasureGallePattaya
City population93,118119,532
Museums within 10 km20
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
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 Galle or Pattaya somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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.