VacationSelector
The Japanese Covered Bridge, Hoi An
Hoi AnThe Japanese Covered Bridge
The Sanctuary of Truth by the sea, Pattaya
PattayaThe Sanctuary of Truth by the sea

Photos: Hoi An by François Guerraz, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Pattaya by Matrix, Pexels License.

Hoi An 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 Hoi An for

  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors
  • shopping

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

Choose Pattaya for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

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. Hoi An 72, Pattaya 66: Hoi An leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Hoi An 68, Pattaya 58: Hoi An leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Hoi An 66, Pattaya 30: Hoi An leads by 36 points.
Nightlife. Hoi An 28, Pattaya 76: Pattaya leads by 48 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hoi An 63, Pattaya 40: Hoi An leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Hoi An 50, Pattaya 52: Pattaya leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Hoi An 58, Pattaya 55: Hoi An leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Hoi An 48, Pattaya 36: Hoi An leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Hoi An 57, Pattaya 42: Hoi An leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Hoi An 88, Pattaya 84: Hoi An leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hoi An 24, Pattaya 30: Pattaya leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hoi An 65, Pattaya 58: Hoi An leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hoi An and Pattaya.

Your match

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

Hoi An
Best match
57match

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

Pattaya
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.

Hoi An in July

35 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
83 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
29 °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

0200400600800JFMAMJJASOND
Hoi AnPattaya

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. Hoi An: 1991-2020 normals, Da Nang (23.5 km from centre). Pattaya: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1961-1990, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sattahip (31.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHoi AnPattaya
Official languageVietnameseThai
CurrencyDong (VND)Baht (THB)
SocketsACFG220 V, 50 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+7
Emergency numberPolice 113, ambulance 115, fire 114Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation13 m35 m
Main airportDa Nang International Airport (DAD)23 km from centre47 non-stop destinationsSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)83 km from centre150 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasureHoi AnPattaya
City population121,716119,532
Museums within 10 km50
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 Hoi An 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.