VacationSelector
The Texas State Capitol under a blue sky, Austin
AustinThe Texas State Capitol under a blue sky
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens

Photos: Austin by LoneStarMike, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Austin 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 Austin for

  • nightlife
  • food and drink
  • beaches

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

Choose Edinburgh for

  • getting around
  • 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. Austin 30, Edinburgh 22: Austin leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Austin 66, Edinburgh 53: Austin leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Austin 40, Edinburgh 75: Edinburgh leads by 35 points.
Nightlife. Austin 65, Edinburgh 50: Austin leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Austin 57, Edinburgh 75: Edinburgh leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Austin 58, Edinburgh 75: Edinburgh leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Austin 55, Edinburgh 62: Edinburgh leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Austin 30, Edinburgh 74: Edinburgh leads by 44 points.
Shopping & style. Austin 45, Edinburgh 50: Edinburgh leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Austin 33, Edinburgh 30: Austin leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Austin 77, Edinburgh 72: Austin leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Austin 40, Edinburgh 34: Austin leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Austin and Edinburgh.

Your match

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

Austin
50match

Wins on nightlife and food and drink with your weighting.

Edinburgh
Best match
56match

Wins on getting around 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.

Austin in July

36 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
49 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
AustinEdinburgh

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. Austin: 1991-2020 normals, Camp Mabry/Austin City Asos (3.7 km from centre). Edinburgh: 1991-2020 normals, Edinburgh Airport (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAustinEdinburgh
Official language-English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number911112 or 999
Elevation149 m47 m
Main airportAustin Bergstrom International Airport (AUS)13 km from centre91 non-stop destinationsEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureAustinEdinburgh
City population961,855488,050
People per km²1,2171,884
Museums within 10 km2132
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 Austin 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. 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. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.