VacationSelector
The Sanctuary of Truth by the sea, Pattaya
PattayaThe Sanctuary of Truth by the sea
Barlas Island in Honda Bay, Puerto Princesa
Puerto PrincesaBarlas Island in Honda Bay

Photos: Pattaya by Matrix, Pexels License; Puerto Princesa by Ray in Manila, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Pattaya or Puerto Princesa?

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 Pattaya for

  • nightlife
  • day trips
  • shopping

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

Choose Puerto Princesa for

  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Puerto Princesa’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. Pattaya 66, Puerto Princesa 58: Pattaya leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Pattaya 58, Puerto Princesa 38: Pattaya leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Pattaya 30, Puerto Princesa 22: Pattaya leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Pattaya 76, Puerto Princesa 26: Pattaya leads by 50 points.
Nature & outdoors. Pattaya 40, Puerto Princesa 80: Puerto Princesa leads by 40 points.
Day trips. Pattaya 52, Puerto Princesa 12: Pattaya leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Pattaya 55, Puerto Princesa 45: Pattaya leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Pattaya 36, Puerto Princesa 30: Pattaya leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Pattaya 42, Puerto Princesa 20: Pattaya leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Pattaya 84, Puerto Princesa 78: Pattaya leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Pattaya 30, Puerto Princesa 10: Pattaya leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Pattaya 58, Puerto Princesa 40: Pattaya leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Pattaya and Puerto Princesa.

Your match

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

Pattaya
Best match
52match

Wins on nightlife and day trips with your weighting.

Puerto Princesa
38match

Wins on nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Puerto Princesa in July

29 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
216 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
PattayaPuerto Princesa

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.

Puerto Princesa has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Pattaya: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1961-1990, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sattahip (31.2 km from centre). Puerto Princesa: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasurePattayaPuerto Princesa
Official languageThaiEnglish, Filipino, Taglish
CurrencyBaht (THB)Philippine Peso (PHP)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzABC220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+8
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199911
Elevation35 m98 m
Main airportSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)83 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsPuerto Princesa International Airport / PAF Antonio Bautista Air Base (PPS)2 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-18 days

By the numbers

MeasurePattayaPuerto Princesa
City population119,532316,384
People per km²-133
Museums within 10 km01
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Pattaya or Puerto Princesa somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.