VacationSelector
The harbour seen from above, Marmaris
MarmarisThe harbour seen from above
The Sanctuary of Truth by the sea, Pattaya
PattayaThe Sanctuary of Truth by the sea

Photos: Marmaris by Mstyslav Chernov, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Pattaya by Matrix, Pexels License.

Marmaris 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 Marmaris for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • beaches

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

Choose Pattaya for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • live music and the arts

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. Marmaris 80, Pattaya 66: Marmaris leads by 14 points.
Food & drink. Marmaris 40, Pattaya 58: Pattaya leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Marmaris 18, Pattaya 30: Pattaya leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Marmaris 60, Pattaya 76: Pattaya leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Marmaris 72, Pattaya 40: Marmaris leads by 32 points.
Day trips. Marmaris 65, Pattaya 52: Marmaris leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Marmaris 62, Pattaya 55: Marmaris leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Marmaris 55, Pattaya 36: Marmaris leads by 19 points.
Shopping & style. Marmaris 38, Pattaya 42: Pattaya leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Marmaris 62, Pattaya 84: Pattaya leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Marmaris 12, Pattaya 30: Pattaya leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Marmaris 50, Pattaya 58: Pattaya leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Marmaris 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

Marmaris
51match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around with your weighting.

Pattaya
52match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

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

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
MarmarisPattaya

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.

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. Marmaris: 2000-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Dalaman (48.8 km from centre). Pattaya: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1961-1990, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sattahip (31.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMarmarisPattaya
Official languageTurkishThai
CurrencyTurkish Lira (TRY)Baht (THB)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+7
Emergency number112Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation7 m35 m
Main airportDalaman International Airport (DLM)49 km from centre61 non-stop destinationsSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)83 km from centre150 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days-

By the numbers

MeasureMarmarisPattaya
City population97,818119,532
People per km²111-
Museums within 10 km10
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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