VacationSelector
The Cathedral of Sant'Agata, Catania
CataniaThe Cathedral of Sant'Agata
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens

Photos: Catania by Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Catania 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 Catania for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • food and drink

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

Choose Edinburgh for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights

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. Catania 72, Edinburgh 22: Catania leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Catania 77, Edinburgh 53: Catania leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Catania 62, Edinburgh 75: Edinburgh leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Catania 60, Edinburgh 50: Catania leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Catania 83, Edinburgh 75: Catania leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Catania 84, Edinburgh 75: Catania leads by 9 points.
Good for families. Catania 50, Edinburgh 62: Edinburgh leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Catania 48, Edinburgh 74: Edinburgh leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Catania 42, Edinburgh 50: Edinburgh leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Catania 60, Edinburgh 30: Catania leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Catania 55, Edinburgh 72: Edinburgh leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Catania 30, Edinburgh 34: Edinburgh leads by 4 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Catania
Best match
60match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Edinburgh
56match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Catania in July

31 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 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

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
CataniaEdinburgh

Where the figures come from

Catania's sunshine is measured 88 km from the centre, at Messina.

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. Catania: 1991-2020 normals, Catania / Fontanarossa (5.2 km from centre). Edinburgh: 1991-2020 normals, Edinburgh Airport (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCataniaEdinburgh
Official languageItalianEnglish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112 or 999
Elevation7 m47 m
Main airportCatania-Fontanarossa Airport (CTA)4 km from centre96 non-stop destinationsEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureCataniaEdinburgh
City population311,584488,050
People per km²1,7041,884
Museums within 10 km2532
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km33
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Catania 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.