VacationSelector
The Story Bridge from Howard Smith Wharves, Brisbane
BrisbaneThe Story Bridge from Howard Smith Wharves
York Minster from the city walls, York
YorkYork Minster from the city walls

Photos: Brisbane by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; York by PAUL FARMER, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Brisbane or York?

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
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

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

Choose York for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on York’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, York 14: Brisbane leads by 41 points.
Food & drink. Brisbane 60, York 42: Brisbane leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Brisbane 42, York 70: York leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Brisbane 55, York 36: Brisbane leads by 19 points.
Nature & outdoors. Brisbane 74, York 62: Brisbane leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Brisbane 50, York 80: York leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Brisbane 78, York 60: Brisbane leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Brisbane 62, York 72: York leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Brisbane 45, York 46: York leads by 1 points.
Affordability. Brisbane 33, York 38: York leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Brisbane 55, York 38: Brisbane leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Brisbane 40, York 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 York.

Your match

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

Brisbane
Best match
54match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

York
49match

Wins on day trips 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.

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

York in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BrisbaneYork

Where the figures come from

York 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.

York's sunshine is measured 48 km from the centre, at Leeming.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Brisbane: 1991-2020 normals, Brisbane (4.5 km from centre). York: 1991-2020 normals, Linton-On-Ouse (14.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBrisbaneYork
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 m25 m
Main airportBrisbane International Airport (BNE)13 km from centre88 non-stop destinationsLeeds Bradford Airport (LBA)39 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureBrisbaneYork
City population2,706,966208,400
People per km²171766
Museums within 10 km1624
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C9 months-

Where else could you go?

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