VacationSelector
The Sanctuary of Truth by the sea, Pattaya
PattayaThe Sanctuary of Truth by the sea
The top of the Mountaintop Express lift on Vail Mountain, Vail
VailThe top of the Mountaintop Express lift on Vail Mountain

Photos: Pattaya by Matrix, Pexels License; Vail by DReifGalaxyM31, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Pattaya or Vail?

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 Vail for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Vail’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, Vail 5: Pattaya leads by 61 points.
Food & drink. Pattaya 58, Vail 35: Pattaya leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Pattaya 30, Vail 10: Pattaya leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Pattaya 76, Vail 30: Pattaya leads by 46 points.
Nature & outdoors. Pattaya 40, Vail 92: Vail leads by 52 points.
Day trips. Pattaya 52, Vail 45: Pattaya leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Pattaya and Vail are level on 55.
Getting around. Pattaya 36, Vail 62: Vail leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Pattaya 42, Vail 35: Pattaya leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Pattaya 84, Vail 5: Pattaya leads by 79 points.
Live music & performing arts. Pattaya 30, Vail 42: Vail leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Pattaya 58, Vail 48: Pattaya leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Pattaya and Vail.

Your match

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

Pattaya
Best match
52match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

Vail
39match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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

Vail in July

29 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
35 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
PattayaVail

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.

Vail's temperatures are measured 47 km from the centre, at Kremmling.

Vail's station stands 186 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Vail 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.

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). Vail: 2006-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Kremmling (46.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePattayaVail
Official languageThai-
CurrencyBaht (THB)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199911
Elevation35 m2,445 m
Main airportSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)83 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsEagle County Regional Airport (EGE)48 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-12 days

By the numbers

MeasurePattayaVail
City population119,5324,835
People per km²-400
Museums within 10 km01
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

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