VacationSelector
The golden Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem
JerusalemThe golden Dome of the Rock
The Sanctuary of Truth by the sea, Pattaya
PattayaThe Sanctuary of Truth by the sea

Photos: Jerusalem by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License; Pattaya by Matrix, Pexels License.

Jerusalem 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 Jerusalem for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Pattaya for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • beaches

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. Jerusalem 40, Pattaya 66: Pattaya leads by 26 points.
Food & drink. Jerusalem 66, Pattaya 58: Jerusalem leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Jerusalem 92, Pattaya 30: Jerusalem leads by 62 points.
Nightlife. Jerusalem 38, Pattaya 76: Pattaya leads by 38 points.
Nature & outdoors. Jerusalem 60, Pattaya 40: Jerusalem leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Jerusalem 80, Pattaya 52: Jerusalem leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Jerusalem 52, Pattaya 55: Pattaya leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Jerusalem 55, Pattaya 36: Jerusalem leads by 19 points.
Shopping & style. Jerusalem 48, Pattaya 42: Jerusalem leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Jerusalem 20, Pattaya 84: Pattaya leads by 64 points.
Live music & performing arts. Jerusalem 40, Pattaya 30: Jerusalem leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Jerusalem 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: Jerusalem and Pattaya.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Jerusalem
53match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips with your weighting.

Pattaya
52match

Wins on prices 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.

Jerusalem in July

30 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
27 °Csea
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

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
JerusalemPattaya

Where the figures come from

Jerusalem 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. Jerusalem: 1991-2020 normals, Jerusalem (1.8 km from centre). Pattaya: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1961-1990, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sattahip (31.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJerusalemPattaya
Official languageHebrewThai
CurrencyNew Israeli Sheqel (ILS)Baht (THB)
SocketsCHM230 V, 50 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+7
Emergency numberPolice 100, fire 102Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation754 m35 m
Main airportBen Gurion International Airport (TLV)42 km from centre111 non-stop destinationsSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)83 km from centre150 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasureJerusalemPattaya
City population1,050,151119,532
People per km²8,374-
Museums within 10 km690
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km70
Swim season, months above 21 °C7 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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