VacationSelector
The junk Duk Ling in Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong
Hong KongThe junk Duk Ling in Victoria Harbour
The Sanctuary of Truth by the sea, Pattaya
PattayaThe Sanctuary of Truth by the sea

Photos: Hong Kong by LN9267, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Pattaya by Matrix, Pexels License.

Hong Kong 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 Hong Kong for

  • getting around
  • shopping
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Hong Kong’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. Hong Kong 50, Pattaya 66: Pattaya leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. Hong Kong 90, Pattaya 58: Hong Kong leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Hong Kong 60, Pattaya 30: Hong Kong leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Hong Kong 68, Pattaya 76: Pattaya leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hong Kong 80, Pattaya 40: Hong Kong leads by 40 points.
Day trips. Hong Kong 68, Pattaya 52: Hong Kong leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Hong Kong 75, Pattaya 55: Hong Kong leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Hong Kong 97, Pattaya 36: Hong Kong leads by 61 points.
Shopping & style. Hong Kong 88, Pattaya 42: Hong Kong leads by 46 points.
Affordability. Hong Kong 27, Pattaya 84: Pattaya leads by 57 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hong Kong 55, Pattaya 30: Hong Kong leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hong Kong 42, Pattaya 58: Pattaya leads by 16 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hong Kong and Pattaya.

Your match

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

Hong Kong
Best match
67match

Wins on getting around and shopping 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.

Hong Kong in July

31 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
381 mmrain in the month
7 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

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Hong KongPattaya

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. Hong Kong: 1991-2020 normals, King's Park (4.4 km from centre). Pattaya: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1961-1990, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sattahip (31.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHong KongPattaya
Official languageStandard ChineseThai
CurrencyHong Kong Dollar (HKD)Baht (THB)
SocketsG220 V, 50 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+7
Emergency number999Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation7 m35 m
Main airportHong Kong International Airport (HKG)25 km from centre148 non-stop destinationsSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)83 km from centre150 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days-

By the numbers

MeasureHong KongPattaya
City population7,413,070119,532
Museums within 10 km390
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Hong Kong 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). 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. 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.