VacationSelector
The Story Bridge from Howard Smith Wharves, Brisbane
BrisbaneThe Story Bridge from Howard Smith Wharves
The Space Needle behind Pier 70, Seattle
SeattleThe Space Needle behind Pier 70

Photos: Brisbane by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Seattle by Caio, Pexels License.

Brisbane or Seattle?

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
  • prices

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

Choose Seattle for

  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Seattle’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, Seattle 30: Brisbane leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Brisbane 60, Seattle 66: Seattle leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Brisbane 42, Seattle 50: Seattle leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Brisbane and Seattle are level on 55.
Nature & outdoors. Brisbane 74, Seattle 87: Seattle leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Brisbane 50, Seattle 55: Seattle leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Brisbane 78, Seattle 64: Brisbane leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Brisbane 62, Seattle 60: Brisbane leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Brisbane 45, Seattle 52: Seattle leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Brisbane 33, Seattle 22: Brisbane leads by 11 points.
Live music & performing arts. Brisbane 55, Seattle 70: Seattle leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Brisbane and Seattle are level on 40.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Brisbane and Seattle.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Brisbane
54match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Seattle
54match

Wins on live music and the arts 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.

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

Seattle in July

25 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
15 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
12 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BrisbaneSeattle

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Brisbane: 1991-2020 normals, Brisbane (4.5 km from centre). Seattle: 1991-2020 normals, Seattle-Tacoma Airport (17.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBrisbaneSeattle
Official languageEnglish-
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number000911
Elevation0 m40 m
Main airportBrisbane International Airport (BNE)13 km from centre88 non-stop destinationsSeattle–Tacoma International Airport (SEA)18 km from centre135 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBrisbaneSeattle
City population2,706,966737,015
People per km²1711,996
Museums within 10 km1627
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Seattle 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.