VacationSelector
Senate Square and the statue of Alexander II, Helsinki
HelsinkiSenate Square and the statue of Alexander II
The Sanctuary of Truth by the sea, Pattaya
PattayaThe Sanctuary of Truth by the sea

Photos: Helsinki by Ximonic (Simo Räsänen), CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Pattaya by Matrix, Pexels License.

Helsinki 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 Helsinki for

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

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

Choose Pattaya for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • nightlife

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. Helsinki 28, Pattaya 66: Pattaya leads by 38 points.
Food & drink. Helsinki 52, Pattaya 58: Pattaya leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Helsinki 60, Pattaya 30: Helsinki leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Helsinki 50, Pattaya 76: Pattaya leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Helsinki 58, Pattaya 40: Helsinki leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Helsinki 62, Pattaya 52: Helsinki leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Helsinki 76, Pattaya 55: Helsinki leads by 21 points.
Getting around. Helsinki 86, Pattaya 36: Helsinki leads by 50 points.
Shopping & style. Helsinki 62, Pattaya 42: Helsinki leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Helsinki 30, Pattaya 84: Pattaya leads by 54 points.
Live music & performing arts. Helsinki 63, Pattaya 30: Helsinki leads by 33 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Helsinki 82, Pattaya 58: Helsinki leads by 24 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Helsinki and Pattaya.

Your match

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

Helsinki
Best match
59match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Pattaya
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.

Helsinki in July

22 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
58 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
18 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

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
HelsinkiPattaya

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. Helsinki: 1991-2020 normals, Helsinki Kaisaniemi / Harju (1.6 km from centre). Pattaya: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1961-1990, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sattahip (31.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHelsinkiPattaya
Official languageFinnish, SwedishThai
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Baht (THB)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number112Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation17 m35 m
Main airportHelsinki Vantaa Airport (HEL)16 km from centre136 non-stop destinationsSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)83 km from centre150 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days-

By the numbers

MeasureHelsinkiPattaya
City population694,392119,532
People per km²3,239-
Museums within 10 km740
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Helsinki 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.