VacationSelector
The Adelaide skyline and the footbridge over the River Torrens, Adelaide
AdelaideThe Adelaide skyline and the footbridge over the River Torrens
A chairlift and the runs on Whistler Mountain, Whistler
WhistlerA chairlift and the runs on Whistler Mountain

Photos: Adelaide by Ardash Muradian, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Whistler by Ruth Hartnup, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Adelaide or Whistler?

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

  • live music and the arts
  • beaches
  • food and drink

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

Choose Whistler for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Whistler’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, Whistler 30: Adelaide leads by 38 points.
Food & drink. Adelaide 72, Whistler 40: Adelaide leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Adelaide 48, Whistler 20: Adelaide leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Adelaide and Whistler are level on 42.
Nature & outdoors. Adelaide 66, Whistler 97: Whistler leads by 31 points.
Day trips. Adelaide 60, Whistler 30: Adelaide leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Adelaide 70, Whistler 68: Adelaide leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Adelaide 57, Whistler 68: Whistler leads by 11 points.
Shopping & style. Adelaide 44, Whistler 30: Adelaide leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Adelaide 40, Whistler 12: Adelaide leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Adelaide 63, Whistler 15: Adelaide leads by 48 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Adelaide 42, Whistler 60: Whistler leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Adelaide and Whistler.

Your match

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

Adelaide
Best match
56match

Wins on live music and the arts and beaches with your weighting.

Whistler
43match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and wellness 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

Whistler in July

25 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
AdelaideWhistler

Where the figures come from

Whistler 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. Adelaide: 1991-2020 normals, Adelaide (West Terrace / ngayirdapira) (3.1 km from centre). Whistler: 1991-2020 normals, Whistler - Nesters (1.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAdelaideWhistler
Official languageEnglishFrench, English
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9:30, UTC+10:30 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number000911
Elevation1 m670 m
Main airportAdelaide International Airport (ADL)6 km from centre35 non-stop destinationsVancouver International Airport (YVR)104 km from centre109 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAdelaideWhistler
City population1,387,29013,982
People per km²1,07158
Museums within 10 km131
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Whistler 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.