VacationSelector
Skiers at the Albion base of the ski area, Alta, Utah
Alta, UtahSkiers at the Albion base of the ski area
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens

Photos: Alta, Utah by Sumanch, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Alta, Utah 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 Alta, Utah for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Alta, Utah’s own page.

Choose Edinburgh for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

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. Alta, Utah 3, Edinburgh 22: Edinburgh leads by 19 points.
Food & drink. Alta, Utah 15, Edinburgh 53: Edinburgh leads by 38 points.
Culture & sights. Alta, Utah 5, Edinburgh 75: Edinburgh leads by 70 points.
Nightlife. Alta, Utah 4, Edinburgh 50: Edinburgh leads by 46 points.
Nature & outdoors. Alta, Utah 90, Edinburgh 75: Alta, Utah leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Alta, Utah 40, Edinburgh 75: Edinburgh leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Alta, Utah 30, Edinburgh 62: Edinburgh leads by 32 points.
Getting around. Alta, Utah 35, Edinburgh 74: Edinburgh leads by 39 points.
Shopping & style. Alta, Utah 4, Edinburgh 50: Edinburgh leads by 46 points.
Affordability. Alta, Utah 15, Edinburgh 30: Edinburgh leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Alta, Utah 3, Edinburgh 72: Edinburgh leads by 69 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Alta, Utah 35, Edinburgh 34: Alta, Utah leads by 1 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Alta, Utah and Edinburgh.

Your match

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

Alta, Utah
23match

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

Edinburgh
Best match
56match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Alta, Utah in July

22 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
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

-5°0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
Alta, UtahEdinburgh

Where the figures come from

Alta, Utah has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

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. Alta, Utah: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km. Edinburgh: 1991-2020 normals, Edinburgh Airport (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAlta, UtahEdinburgh
Official language-English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number911112 or 999
Elevation2,610 m47 m
Main airportSalt Lake City International Airport (SLC)37 km from centre108 non-stop destinationsEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlta, UtahEdinburgh
City population228488,050
People per km²191,884
Museums within 10 km032
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km03
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

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

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.