VacationSelector
Wat Xieng Thong temple, Luang Prabang
Luang PrabangWat Xieng Thong temple
The harbour seen from above, Marmaris
MarmarisThe harbour seen from above

Photos: Luang Prabang by Basile Morin, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Marmaris by Mstyslav Chernov, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Luang Prabang or Marmaris?

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 Luang Prabang for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • wellness

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

Choose Marmaris for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Marmaris’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. Luang Prabang 14, Marmaris 80: Marmaris leads by 66 points.
Food & drink. Luang Prabang 42, Marmaris 40: Luang Prabang leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Luang Prabang 65, Marmaris 18: Luang Prabang leads by 47 points.
Nightlife. Luang Prabang 8, Marmaris 60: Marmaris leads by 52 points.
Nature & outdoors. Luang Prabang 68, Marmaris 72: Marmaris leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Luang Prabang 35, Marmaris 65: Marmaris leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Luang Prabang 38, Marmaris 62: Marmaris leads by 24 points.
Getting around. Luang Prabang 50, Marmaris 55: Marmaris leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Luang Prabang and Marmaris are level on 38.
Affordability. Luang Prabang 80, Marmaris 62: Luang Prabang leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Luang Prabang 18, Marmaris 12: Luang Prabang leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Luang Prabang 60, Marmaris 50: Luang Prabang leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Luang Prabang and Marmaris.

Your match

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

Luang Prabang
43match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

Marmaris
Best match
51match

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.

Luang Prabang in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
250 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Marmaris in July

32 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
8 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Luang PrabangMarmaris

Where the figures come from

Marmaris's temperatures are measured 49 km from the centre, at Dalaman.

Marmaris 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Luang Prabang: 1991-2020 normals, Luang-Prabang (0.8 km from centre). Marmaris: 2000-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Dalaman (48.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLuang PrabangMarmaris
Official languageLaoTurkish
CurrencyLao Kip (LAK)Turkish Lira (TRY)
SocketsABCEF230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+3
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 195, fire 190112
Elevation305 m7 m
Main airportLuang Phabang International Airport (LPQ)4 km from centre7 non-stop destinationsDalaman International Airport (DLM)49 km from centre61 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-14 days

By the numbers

MeasureLuang PrabangMarmaris
City population53,79297,818
People per km²-111
Museums within 10 km01
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C-6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Luang Prabang or Marmaris 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). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.