VacationSelector
The Sanctuary of Truth by the sea, Pattaya
PattayaThe Sanctuary of Truth by the sea
The cathedral above the old town, Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de CompostelaThe cathedral above the old town

Photos: Pattaya by Matrix, Pexels License; Santiago de Compostela by Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez (Lmbuga), CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Pattaya or Santiago de Compostela?

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

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • prices

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

Choose Santiago de Compostela for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Santiago de Compostela’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, Santiago de Compostela 32: Pattaya leads by 34 points.
Food & drink. Pattaya 58, Santiago de Compostela 68: Santiago de Compostela leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Pattaya 30, Santiago de Compostela 70: Santiago de Compostela leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Pattaya 76, Santiago de Compostela 45: Pattaya leads by 31 points.
Nature & outdoors. Pattaya 40, Santiago de Compostela 62: Santiago de Compostela leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Pattaya 52, Santiago de Compostela 72: Santiago de Compostela leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Pattaya 55, Santiago de Compostela 42: Pattaya leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Pattaya 36, Santiago de Compostela 70: Santiago de Compostela leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. Pattaya 42, Santiago de Compostela 35: Pattaya leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Pattaya 84, Santiago de Compostela 64: Pattaya leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Pattaya 30, Santiago de Compostela 40: Santiago de Compostela leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Pattaya 58, Santiago de Compostela 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 Santiago de Compostela.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Pattaya
52match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Santiago de Compostela
54match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around 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

Santiago de Compostela in July

25 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
41 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
17 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
PattayaSantiago de Compostela

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). Santiago de Compostela: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago / Labacolla (8.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePattayaSantiago de Compostela
Official languageThaiSpanish
CurrencyBaht (THB)Euro (EUR)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199112
Elevation35 m260 m
Main airportSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)83 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsSantiago-Rosalía de Castro Airport (SCQ)10 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePattayaSantiago de Compostela
City population119,532100,965
People per km²-459
Museums within 10 km06
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
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 Santiago de Compostela 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.