VacationSelector
A canal bridge in autumn, Amsterdam
AmsterdamA canal bridge in autumn
Flinders Street Station, Melbourne
MelbourneFlinders Street Station

Photos: Amsterdam by Hans, Pexels License; Melbourne by Medelam, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Amsterdam or Melbourne?

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 Amsterdam for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • getting around

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

Choose Melbourne for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Melbourne’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. Amsterdam 25, Melbourne 50: Melbourne leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Amsterdam 58, Melbourne 75: Melbourne leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Amsterdam 82, Melbourne 57: Amsterdam leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Amsterdam 77, Melbourne 75: Amsterdam leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Amsterdam 47, Melbourne 70: Melbourne leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Amsterdam 87, Melbourne 62: Amsterdam leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Amsterdam 72, Melbourne 73: Melbourne leads by 1 points.
Getting around. Amsterdam 86, Melbourne 76: Amsterdam leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Amsterdam 68, Melbourne 70: Melbourne leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Amsterdam 22, Melbourne 31: Melbourne leads by 9 points.
Live music & performing arts. Amsterdam 78, Melbourne 72: Amsterdam leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Amsterdam 42, Melbourne 54: Melbourne leads by 12 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Amsterdam and Melbourne.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Amsterdam
62match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips with your weighting.

Melbourne
64match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Amsterdam in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
84 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
17 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Melbourne in July

14 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
AmsterdamMelbourne

Where the figures come from

Amsterdam 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.

Amsterdam's sunshine is measured 35 km from the centre, at De Bilt.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Amsterdam: 1991-2020 normals, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (12 km from centre). Melbourne: 1991-2020 normals, Latrobe University / Kingsbury (13.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAmsterdamMelbourne
Official languageDutchEnglish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+10, UTC+11 in summer
Emergency number112000
Elevation-2 m31 m
Main airportAmsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS)12 km from centre287 non-stop destinationsMelbourne Airport (MEL)19 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAmsterdamMelbourne
City population921,4685,350,705
People per km²4,208535
Museums within 10 km10143
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km51
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Amsterdam or Melbourne 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.