VacationSelector
The Sun and Moon pagodas on Shan Lake, Guilin
GuilinThe Sun and Moon pagodas on Shan Lake
The Sanctuary of Truth by the sea, Pattaya
PattayaThe Sanctuary of Truth by the sea

Photos: Guilin by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Pattaya by Matrix, Pexels License.

Guilin 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 Guilin for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

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

Choose Pattaya for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • 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. Guilin 8, Pattaya 66: Pattaya leads by 58 points.
Food & drink. Guilin 45, Pattaya 58: Pattaya leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Guilin 40, Pattaya 30: Guilin leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Guilin 30, Pattaya 76: Pattaya leads by 46 points.
Nature & outdoors. Guilin 88, Pattaya 40: Guilin leads by 48 points.
Day trips. Guilin 56, Pattaya 52: Guilin leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Guilin 45, Pattaya 55: Pattaya leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Guilin 45, Pattaya 36: Guilin leads by 9 points.
Shopping & style. Guilin 28, Pattaya 42: Pattaya leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Guilin 78, Pattaya 84: Pattaya leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Guilin and Pattaya are level on 30.
Wellness & relaxation. Guilin 40, Pattaya 58: Pattaya leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Guilin and Pattaya.

Your match

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

Guilin
44match

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

Pattaya
Best match
52match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Guilin in July

33 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
248 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
14 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

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
GuilinPattaya

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. Guilin: 1991-2020 normals, Guilin (7.6 km from centre). Pattaya: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1961-1990, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sattahip (31.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGuilinPattaya
Official languagePutonghuaThai
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)Baht (THB)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+7
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation153 m35 m
Main airportGuilin Liangjiang International Airport (KWL)25 km from centre43 non-stop destinationsSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)83 km from centre150 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days-

By the numbers

MeasureGuilinPattaya
City population4,931,137119,532
Museums within 10 km10
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Guilin 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.