VacationSelector
The Story Bridge from Howard Smith Wharves, Brisbane
BrisbaneThe Story Bridge from Howard Smith Wharves
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens

Photos: Brisbane by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Brisbane 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 Brisbane for

  • beaches
  • families
  • food and drink

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

Choose Edinburgh for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

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. Brisbane 55, Edinburgh 22: Brisbane leads by 33 points.
Food & drink. Brisbane 60, Edinburgh 53: Brisbane leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Brisbane 42, Edinburgh 75: Edinburgh leads by 33 points.
Nightlife. Brisbane 55, Edinburgh 50: Brisbane leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Brisbane 74, Edinburgh 75: Edinburgh leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Brisbane 50, Edinburgh 75: Edinburgh leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Brisbane 78, Edinburgh 62: Brisbane leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Brisbane 62, Edinburgh 74: Edinburgh leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Brisbane 45, Edinburgh 50: Edinburgh leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Brisbane 33, Edinburgh 30: Brisbane leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Brisbane 55, Edinburgh 72: Edinburgh leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Brisbane 40, Edinburgh 34: Brisbane leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Brisbane and Edinburgh.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Brisbane
54match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Edinburgh
56match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Brisbane in July

22 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
20 °Csea
11 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

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BrisbaneEdinburgh

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. Brisbane: 1991-2020 normals, Brisbane (4.5 km from centre). Edinburgh: 1991-2020 normals, Edinburgh Airport (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBrisbaneEdinburgh
Official languageEnglishEnglish
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+10UTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number000112 or 999
Elevation0 m47 m
Main airportBrisbane International Airport (BNE)13 km from centre88 non-stop destinationsEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureBrisbaneEdinburgh
City population2,706,966488,050
People per km²1711,884
Museums within 10 km1632
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km03
Swim season, months above 21 °C9 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Brisbane 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). 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.