VacationSelector
The Explanada de España, Alicante
AlicanteThe Explanada de España
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens

Photos: Alicante by Emilio Sánchez Hernández, Pexels License; Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Alicante 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 Alicante for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • food and drink

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

Choose Edinburgh for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Alicante 82, Edinburgh 22: Alicante leads by 60 points.
Food & drink. Alicante 67, Edinburgh 53: Alicante leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Alicante 46, Edinburgh 75: Edinburgh leads by 29 points.
Nightlife. Alicante 60, Edinburgh 50: Alicante leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Alicante 63, Edinburgh 75: Edinburgh leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Alicante 72, Edinburgh 75: Edinburgh leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Alicante 68, Edinburgh 62: Alicante leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Alicante 66, Edinburgh 74: Edinburgh leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Alicante 44, Edinburgh 50: Edinburgh leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Alicante 60, Edinburgh 30: Alicante leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Alicante 37, Edinburgh 72: Edinburgh leads by 35 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Alicante 40, Edinburgh 34: Alicante leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Alicante and Edinburgh.

Your match

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

Alicante
Best match
59match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Edinburgh
56match

Wins on live music and the arts 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.

Alicante in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
3 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 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°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
AlicanteEdinburgh

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. Alicante: 1991-2020 normals, Alicante (2.8 km from centre). Edinburgh: 1991-2020 normals, Edinburgh Airport (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAlicanteEdinburgh
Official languageSpanishEnglish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112 or 999
Elevation3 m47 m
Main airportAlicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport (ALC)10 km from centre126 non-stop destinationsEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlicanteEdinburgh
City population366,221488,050
People per km²1,8191,884
Museums within 10 km832
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km23
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Alicante 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.