VacationSelector
The Sanctuary of Truth by the sea, Pattaya
PattayaThe Sanctuary of Truth by the sea
Hanok houses in Bukchon, Seoul
SeoulHanok houses in Bukchon

Photos: Pattaya by Matrix, Pexels License; Seoul by 거열 박, Pexels License.

Pattaya or Seoul?

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
  • prices

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

Choose Seoul for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Seoul’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, Seoul 18: Pattaya leads by 48 points.
Food & drink. Pattaya 58, Seoul 84: Seoul leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Pattaya 30, Seoul 75: Seoul leads by 45 points.
Nightlife. Pattaya 76, Seoul 84: Seoul leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Pattaya 40, Seoul 75: Seoul leads by 35 points.
Day trips. Pattaya 52, Seoul 77: Seoul leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Pattaya 55, Seoul 80: Seoul leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Pattaya 36, Seoul 87: Seoul leads by 51 points.
Shopping & style. Pattaya 42, Seoul 85: Seoul leads by 43 points.
Affordability. Pattaya 84, Seoul 50: Pattaya leads by 34 points.
Live music & performing arts. Pattaya 30, Seoul 63: Seoul leads by 33 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Pattaya 58, Seoul 75: Seoul leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Pattaya and Seoul.

Your match

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

Pattaya
52match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Seoul
Best match
71match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights 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

Seoul in July

29 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
422 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
PattayaSeoul

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). Seoul: 1991-2020 normals, Seoul (2.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePattayaSeoul
Official languageThaiKorean, Korean Sign Language
CurrencyBaht (THB)Won (KRW)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzCF220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+9
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199Police 112, ambulance 119, fire 119
Elevation35 m38 m
Main airportSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)83 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsIncheon International Airport (ICN)49 km from centre162 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-18 days

By the numbers

MeasurePattayaSeoul
City population119,5329,668,465
People per km²-15,973
Museums within 10 km081
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km05
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months2 months

Where else could you go?

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