VacationSelector
The Adelaide skyline and the footbridge over the River Torrens, Adelaide
AdelaideThe Adelaide skyline and the footbridge over the River Torrens
The Royal Palace, Madrid
MadridThe Royal Palace

Photos: Adelaide by Ardash Muradian, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Madrid by Mert Ocak, Pexels License.

Adelaide or Madrid?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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

Choose Madrid for

  • nightlife
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Madrid’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, Madrid 5: Adelaide leads by 63 points.
Food & drink. Adelaide 72, Madrid 80: Madrid leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Adelaide 48, Madrid 86: Madrid leads by 38 points.
Nightlife. Adelaide 42, Madrid 85: Madrid leads by 43 points.
Nature & outdoors. Adelaide 66, Madrid 60: Adelaide leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Adelaide 60, Madrid 89: Madrid leads by 29 points.
Good for families. Adelaide 70, Madrid 68: Adelaide leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Adelaide 57, Madrid 84: Madrid leads by 27 points.
Shopping & style. Adelaide 44, Madrid 75: Madrid leads by 31 points.
Affordability. Adelaide 40, Madrid 50: Madrid leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Adelaide 63, Madrid 77: Madrid leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Adelaide 42, Madrid 36: Adelaide leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Adelaide and Madrid.

Your match

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

Adelaide
56match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Madrid
Best match
66match

Wins on nightlife 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.

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

Madrid in July

33 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
AdelaideMadrid

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Adelaide: 1991-2020 normals, Adelaide (West Terrace / ngayirdapira) (3.1 km from centre). Madrid: 1991-2020 normals, Madrid (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAdelaideMadrid
Official languageEnglishSpanish
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9:30, UTC+10:30 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number000112
Elevation1 m663 m
Main airportAdelaide International Airport (ADL)6 km from centre35 non-stop destinationsAdolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre239 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureAdelaideMadrid
City population1,387,2903,506,730
People per km²1,0715,801
Museums within 10 km1388
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km04
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Adelaide or Madrid 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.