VacationSelector
The Sanctuary of Truth by the sea, Pattaya
PattayaThe Sanctuary of Truth by the sea
The White Tower from the promenade, Thessaloniki
ThessalonikiThe White Tower from the promenade

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

Pattaya or Thessaloniki?

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

  • wellness
  • prices
  • beaches

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

Choose Thessaloniki for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Thessaloniki’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, Thessaloniki 55: Pattaya leads by 11 points.
Food & drink. Pattaya 58, Thessaloniki 77: Thessaloniki leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Pattaya 30, Thessaloniki 73: Thessaloniki leads by 43 points.
Nightlife. Pattaya and Thessaloniki are level on 76.
Nature & outdoors. Pattaya 40, Thessaloniki 66: Thessaloniki leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Pattaya 52, Thessaloniki 74: Thessaloniki leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Pattaya 55, Thessaloniki 50: Pattaya leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Pattaya 36, Thessaloniki 60: Thessaloniki leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Pattaya 42, Thessaloniki 50: Thessaloniki leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Pattaya 84, Thessaloniki 66: Pattaya leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Pattaya 30, Thessaloniki 52: Thessaloniki leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Pattaya 58, Thessaloniki 33: Pattaya leads by 25 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Pattaya and Thessaloniki.

Your match

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

Pattaya
52match

Wins on wellness and prices with your weighting.

Thessaloniki
Best match
61match

Wins on culture and sights 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

Thessaloniki in July

32 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
PattayaThessaloniki

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). Thessaloniki: 1991-2020 normals, Thessaloniki Airport (14 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePattayaThessaloniki
Official languageThaiGreek
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 m6 m
Main airportSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)83 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsThessaloniki Macedonia International Airport (SKG)14 km from centre90 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-15 days

By the numbers

MeasurePattayaThessaloniki
City population119,532309,617
People per km²-16,042
Museums within 10 km032
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months5 months

Where else could you go?

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