VacationSelector
The Sanctuary of Truth by the sea, Pattaya
PattayaThe Sanctuary of Truth by the sea
Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo
TokyoShibuya Crossing

Photos: Pattaya by Matrix, Pexels License; Tokyo by Benh LIEU SONG, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Pattaya or Tokyo?

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

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

Choose Tokyo for

  • getting around
  • shopping
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Tokyo’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, Tokyo 40: Pattaya leads by 26 points.
Food & drink. Pattaya 58, Tokyo 98: Tokyo leads by 40 points.
Culture & sights. Pattaya 30, Tokyo 84: Tokyo leads by 54 points.
Nightlife. Pattaya 76, Tokyo 86: Tokyo leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Pattaya 40, Tokyo 68: Tokyo leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Pattaya 52, Tokyo 85: Tokyo leads by 33 points.
Good for families. Pattaya 55, Tokyo 95: Tokyo leads by 40 points.
Getting around. Pattaya 36, Tokyo 98: Tokyo leads by 62 points.
Shopping & style. Pattaya 42, Tokyo 99: Tokyo leads by 57 points.
Affordability. Pattaya 84, Tokyo 48: Pattaya leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. Pattaya 30, Tokyo 86: Tokyo leads by 56 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Pattaya 58, Tokyo 78: Tokyo leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Pattaya and Tokyo.

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.

Tokyo
Best match
80match

Wins on getting around and shopping 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

Tokyo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
157 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
PattayaTokyo

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). Tokyo: 1991-2020 normals, Tokyo (3.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePattayaTokyo
Official languageThaiJapanese
CurrencyBaht (THB)Yen (JPY)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+9
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199Police 110, fire 119
Elevation35 m6 m
Main airportSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)83 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsTokyo Haneda International Airport (HND)18 km from centre98 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-16 days

By the numbers

MeasurePattayaTokyo
City population119,53214,264,798
People per km²-6,501
Museums within 10 km0192
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months4 months

Where else could you go?

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