VacationSelector
The Sanctuary of Truth by the sea, Pattaya
PattayaThe Sanctuary of Truth by the sea
The City of Arts and Sciences, Valencia
ValenciaThe City of Arts and Sciences

Photos: Pattaya by Matrix, Pexels License; Valencia by Francesco Ungaro, Pexels License.

Pattaya or Valencia?

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
  • wellness
  • nightlife

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

Choose Valencia for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Valencia’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, Valencia 78: Valencia leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Pattaya 58, Valencia 74: Valencia leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Pattaya 30, Valencia 68: Valencia leads by 38 points.
Nightlife. Pattaya 76, Valencia 66: Pattaya leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Pattaya 40, Valencia 60: Valencia leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Pattaya 52, Valencia 70: Valencia leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Pattaya 55, Valencia 75: Valencia leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Pattaya 36, Valencia 76: Valencia leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Pattaya 42, Valencia 57: Valencia leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Pattaya 84, Valencia 57: Pattaya leads by 27 points.
Live music & performing arts. Pattaya 30, Valencia 55: Valencia leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Pattaya 58, Valencia 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 Valencia.

Your match

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

Pattaya
52match

Wins on prices and wellness with your weighting.

Valencia
Best match
65match

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

Valencia in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
7 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
PattayaValencia

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). Valencia: 1991-2020 normals, Valencia (1.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePattayaValencia
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 m15 m
Main airportSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)83 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsValencia Airport (VLC)9 km from centre109 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePattayaValencia
City population119,532840,792
People per km²-6,242
Museums within 10 km045
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
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 Valencia 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.