VacationSelector
The Sanctuary of Truth by the sea, Pattaya
PattayaThe Sanctuary of Truth by the sea
Santa Claus Village in winter, Rovaniemi
RovaniemiSanta Claus Village in winter

Photos: Pattaya by Matrix, Pexels License; Rovaniemi by Moskenes, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Pattaya or Rovaniemi?

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

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • beaches

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

Choose Rovaniemi for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Rovaniemi’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, Rovaniemi 10: Pattaya leads by 56 points.
Food & drink. Pattaya 58, Rovaniemi 25: Pattaya leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. Pattaya 30, Rovaniemi 22: Pattaya leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Pattaya 76, Rovaniemi 15: Pattaya leads by 61 points.
Nature & outdoors. Pattaya 40, Rovaniemi 78: Rovaniemi leads by 38 points.
Day trips. Pattaya 52, Rovaniemi 8: Pattaya leads by 44 points.
Good for families. Pattaya 55, Rovaniemi 72: Rovaniemi leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Pattaya and Rovaniemi are level on 36.
Shopping & style. Pattaya 42, Rovaniemi 18: Pattaya leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Pattaya 84, Rovaniemi 18: Pattaya leads by 66 points.
Live music & performing arts. Pattaya 30, Rovaniemi 22: Pattaya leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Pattaya 58, Rovaniemi 60: Rovaniemi leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Pattaya and Rovaniemi.

Your match

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

Pattaya
Best match
52match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

Rovaniemi
32match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and families 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

Rovaniemi in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
78 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
22 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
PattayaRovaniemi

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.

Rovaniemi 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. Pattaya: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1961-1990, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sattahip (31.2 km from centre). Rovaniemi: 2008-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Rovaniemi Rautatieasema / Kuusela (0.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePattayaRovaniemi
Official languageThaiFinnish, Swedish
CurrencyBaht (THB)Euro (EUR)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199112
Elevation35 m88 m
Main airportSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)83 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsRovaniemi Airport (RVN)8 km from centre44 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-15 days

By the numbers

MeasurePattayaRovaniemi
City population119,53265,329
People per km²-9
Museums within 10 km06
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Pattaya or Rovaniemi 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.