VacationSelector
The Sanctuary of Truth by the sea, Pattaya
PattayaThe Sanctuary of Truth by the sea
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge

Photos: Pattaya by Matrix, Pexels License; San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License.

Pattaya or San Francisco?

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
  • beaches
  • nightlife

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

Choose San Francisco for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on San Francisco’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, San Francisco 25: Pattaya leads by 41 points.
Food & drink. Pattaya 58, San Francisco 82: San Francisco leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Pattaya 30, San Francisco 68: San Francisco leads by 38 points.
Nightlife. Pattaya 76, San Francisco 58: Pattaya leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Pattaya 40, San Francisco 80: San Francisco leads by 40 points.
Day trips. Pattaya 52, San Francisco 72: San Francisco leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Pattaya 55, San Francisco 66: San Francisco leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Pattaya 36, San Francisco 70: San Francisco leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. Pattaya 42, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Pattaya 84, San Francisco 14: Pattaya leads by 70 points.
Live music & performing arts. Pattaya 30, San Francisco 76: San Francisco leads by 46 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Pattaya 58, San Francisco 42: Pattaya leads by 16 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Pattaya and San Francisco.

Your match

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

Pattaya
52match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

San Francisco
Best match
59match

Wins on live music and the arts and 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

San Francisco in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
PattayaSan Francisco

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. Pattaya: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1961-1990, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sattahip (31.2 km from centre). San Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePattayaSan Francisco
Official languageThai-
CurrencyBaht (THB)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199911
Elevation35 m16 m
Main airportSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)83 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePattayaSan Francisco
City population119,532873,965
People per km²-1,455
Museums within 10 km051
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Pattaya or San Francisco 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. 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.