VacationSelector
The Nairobi skyline with the KICC tower, Nairobi
NairobiThe Nairobi skyline with the KICC tower
The Sanctuary of Truth by the sea, Pattaya
PattayaThe Sanctuary of Truth by the sea

Photos: Nairobi by Lmwangi, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Pattaya by Matrix, Pexels License.

Nairobi 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 Nairobi for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Pattaya for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • 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. Nairobi 4, Pattaya 66: Pattaya leads by 62 points.
Food & drink. Nairobi 48, Pattaya 58: Pattaya leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Nairobi 35, Pattaya 30: Nairobi leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Nairobi 58, Pattaya 76: Pattaya leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Nairobi 84, Pattaya 40: Nairobi leads by 44 points.
Day trips. Nairobi 28, Pattaya 52: Pattaya leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Nairobi and Pattaya are level on 55.
Getting around. Nairobi 20, Pattaya 36: Pattaya leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Nairobi 45, Pattaya 42: Nairobi leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Nairobi 60, Pattaya 84: Pattaya leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Nairobi 35, Pattaya 30: Nairobi leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Nairobi 25, Pattaya 58: Pattaya leads by 33 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Nairobi and Pattaya.

Your match

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

Nairobi
41match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and culture and sights with your weighting.

Pattaya
Best match
52match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Nairobi in July

24 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
11 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
12 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
NairobiPattaya

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. Nairobi: 1991-2020 normals, Nairobi ACC/FIC/RCC/MET/COM/ (13.3 km from centre). Pattaya: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1961-1990, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sattahip (31.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNairobiPattaya
Official languageEnglish, SwahiliThai
CurrencyKenyan Shilling (KES)Baht (THB)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+7
Emergency numberPolice 112/999, ambulance 112/999, fire 112/999Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation1,661 m35 m
Main airportJomo Kenyatta International Airport (NBO)13 km from centre60 non-stop destinationsSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)83 km from centre150 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days-

By the numbers

MeasureNairobiPattaya
City population5,545,000119,532
People per km²7,967-
Museums within 10 km40
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Nairobi 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). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.