VacationSelector
Wat Xieng Thong temple, Luang Prabang
Luang PrabangWat Xieng Thong temple
The Sanctuary of Truth by the sea, Pattaya
PattayaThe Sanctuary of Truth by the sea

Photos: Luang Prabang by Basile Morin, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Pattaya by Matrix, Pexels License.

Luang Prabang 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 Luang Prabang for

  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

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

Choose Pattaya for

  • nightlife
  • beaches
  • 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. Luang Prabang 14, Pattaya 66: Pattaya leads by 52 points.
Food & drink. Luang Prabang 42, Pattaya 58: Pattaya leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Luang Prabang 65, Pattaya 30: Luang Prabang leads by 35 points.
Nightlife. Luang Prabang 8, Pattaya 76: Pattaya leads by 68 points.
Nature & outdoors. Luang Prabang 68, Pattaya 40: Luang Prabang leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Luang Prabang 35, Pattaya 52: Pattaya leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Luang Prabang 38, Pattaya 55: Pattaya leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Luang Prabang 50, Pattaya 36: Luang Prabang leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Luang Prabang 38, Pattaya 42: Pattaya leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Luang Prabang 80, Pattaya 84: Pattaya leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Luang Prabang 18, Pattaya 30: Pattaya leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Luang Prabang 60, Pattaya 58: Luang Prabang leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Luang Prabang and Pattaya.

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 nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Pattaya
Best match
52match

Wins on nightlife 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.

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

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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Luang PrabangPattaya

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. Luang Prabang: 1991-2020 normals, Luang-Prabang (0.8 km from centre). Pattaya: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1961-1990, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sattahip (31.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLuang PrabangPattaya
Official languageLaoThai
CurrencyLao Kip (LAK)Baht (THB)
SocketsABCEF230 V, 50 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+7
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 195, fire 190Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation305 m35 m
Main airportLuang Phabang International Airport (LPQ)4 km from centre7 non-stop destinationsSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)83 km from centre150 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasureLuang PrabangPattaya
City population53,792119,532
Museums within 10 km00
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Luang Prabang 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.