VacationSelector
The Adelaide skyline and the footbridge over the River Torrens, Adelaide
AdelaideThe Adelaide skyline and the footbridge over the River Torrens
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens

Photos: Adelaide by Ardash Muradian, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Adelaide or Edinburgh?

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 Adelaide for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • prices

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

Choose Edinburgh for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Edinburgh’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. Adelaide 68, Edinburgh 22: Adelaide leads by 46 points.
Food & drink. Adelaide 72, Edinburgh 53: Adelaide leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Adelaide 48, Edinburgh 75: Edinburgh leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Adelaide 42, Edinburgh 50: Edinburgh leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Adelaide 66, Edinburgh 75: Edinburgh leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Adelaide 60, Edinburgh 75: Edinburgh leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Adelaide 70, Edinburgh 62: Adelaide leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Adelaide 57, Edinburgh 74: Edinburgh leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Adelaide 44, Edinburgh 50: Edinburgh leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Adelaide 40, Edinburgh 30: Adelaide leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Adelaide 63, Edinburgh 72: Edinburgh leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Adelaide 42, Edinburgh 34: Adelaide leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Adelaide and Edinburgh.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Adelaide
56match

Wins on beaches and food and drink with your weighting.

Edinburgh
56match

Wins on culture and sights 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.

Adelaide in July

16 °Cdaytime high
8 °Cnight-time low
72 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
14 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Edinburgh in July

19 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
66 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
14 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
AdelaideEdinburgh

Where the figures come from

Edinburgh 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.

Edinburgh's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at Leuchars.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Adelaide: 1991-2020 normals, Adelaide (West Terrace / ngayirdapira) (3.1 km from centre). Edinburgh: 1991-2020 normals, Edinburgh Airport (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAdelaideEdinburgh
Official languageEnglishEnglish
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+9:30, UTC+10:30 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number000112 or 999
Elevation1 m47 m
Main airportAdelaide International Airport (ADL)6 km from centre35 non-stop destinationsEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureAdelaideEdinburgh
City population1,387,290488,050
People per km²1,0711,884
Museums within 10 km1332
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km03
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Adelaide or Edinburgh somewhere new.

Browse every destination

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). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.