VacationSelector
Pulteney Bridge and the weir on the Avon, Bath
BathPulteney Bridge and the weir on the Avon
The Opera House from the water, Sydney
SydneyThe Opera House from the water

Photos: Bath by Lucas Carlini, Pexels License; Sydney by Bernard Spragg, CC0.

Bath or Sydney?

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 Bath for

  • day trips
  • wellness
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Sydney for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Sydney’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. Bath 10, Sydney 95: Sydney leads by 85 points.
Food & drink. Bath 44, Sydney 77: Sydney leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. Bath 68, Sydney 60: Bath leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Bath 30, Sydney 60: Sydney leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bath 58, Sydney 85: Sydney leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Bath 80, Sydney 50: Bath leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Bath 50, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Bath 72, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Bath 54, Sydney 68: Sydney leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Bath 27, Sydney 22: Bath leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bath 44, Sydney 73: Sydney leads by 29 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bath 78, Sydney 55: Bath leads by 23 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Bath
51match

Wins on day trips and wellness with your weighting.

Sydney
Best match
66match

Wins on beaches and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Bath in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Sydney in July

18 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
70 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
19 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
BathSydney

Where the figures come from

Bath's temperatures are measured 29 km from the centre, at Lyneham.

Bath 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. Bath: 1991-2020 normals, Lyneham (29.2 km from centre). Sydney: 1991-2020 normals, Sydney Airport (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBathSydney
Official languageEnglishEnglish
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+10, UTC+11 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999000
Elevation132 m6 m
Main airportBristol Airport (BRS)25 km from centre117 non-stop destinationsSydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD)9 km from centre99 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBathSydney
City population94,0925,450,496
People per km²3,245449
Museums within 10 km1738
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bath or Sydney 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.