VacationSelector
Galway Cathedral from the River Corrib, Galway
GalwayGalway Cathedral from the River Corrib
The Sanctuary of Truth by the sea, Pattaya
PattayaThe Sanctuary of Truth by the sea

Photos: Galway by Dieglop, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Pattaya by Matrix, Pexels License.

Galway 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 Galway for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts
  • getting around

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

Choose Pattaya for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • wellness

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. Galway 28, Pattaya 66: Pattaya leads by 38 points.
Food & drink. Galway 45, Pattaya 58: Pattaya leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Galway 33, Pattaya 30: Galway leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Galway 50, Pattaya 76: Pattaya leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Galway 78, Pattaya 40: Galway leads by 38 points.
Day trips. Galway 56, Pattaya 52: Galway leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Galway 42, Pattaya 55: Pattaya leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Galway 58, Pattaya 36: Galway leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Galway 38, Pattaya 42: Pattaya leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Galway 28, Pattaya 84: Pattaya leads by 56 points.
Live music & performing arts. Galway 57, Pattaya 30: Galway leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Galway 28, Pattaya 58: Pattaya leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Galway and Pattaya.

Your match

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

Galway
45match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Pattaya
Best match
52match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Galway in July

20 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 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
GalwayPattaya

Where the figures come from

Galway's temperatures are measured 64 km from the centre, at Shannon Airport.

Galway 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 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. Galway: 1991-2020 normals, Shannon Airport (64.2 km from centre). Pattaya: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1961-1990, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sattahip (31.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGalwayPattaya
Official languageEnglish, IrishThai
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Baht (THB)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number112Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation25 m35 m
Main airportShannon Airport (SNN)64 km from centre39 non-stop destinationsSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)83 km from centre150 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureGalwayPattaya
City population83,456119,532
People per km²1,563-
Museums within 10 km40
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Galway 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.