VacationSelector
The Campanile, Trinity College, Dublin
DublinThe Campanile, Trinity College
Flinders Street Station, Melbourne
MelbourneFlinders Street Station

Photos: Dublin by David Kernan, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Melbourne by Medelam, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Dublin or Melbourne?

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 Dublin for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Melbourne for

  • wellness
  • food and drink
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Melbourne’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. Dublin 27, Melbourne 50: Melbourne leads by 23 points.
Food & drink. Dublin 50, Melbourne 75: Melbourne leads by 25 points.
Culture & sights. Dublin 64, Melbourne 57: Dublin leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Dublin 62, Melbourne 75: Melbourne leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Dublin and Melbourne are level on 70.
Day trips. Dublin 72, Melbourne 62: Dublin leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Dublin 57, Melbourne 73: Melbourne leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Dublin 66, Melbourne 76: Melbourne leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Dublin 54, Melbourne 70: Melbourne leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Dublin 20, Melbourne 31: Melbourne leads by 11 points.
Live music & performing arts. Dublin 65, Melbourne 72: Melbourne leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Dublin 25, Melbourne 54: Melbourne leads by 29 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Dublin and Melbourne.

Your match

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

Dublin
53match

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

Melbourne
Best match
64match

Wins on wellness 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.

Dublin in July

20 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
15 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Melbourne in July

14 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
DublinMelbourne

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Dublin: 1991-2020 normals, Dublin Airport (9.3 km from centre). Melbourne: 1991-2020 normals, Latrobe University / Kingsbury (13.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDublinMelbourne
Official languageEnglish, IrishEnglish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+10, UTC+11 in summer
Emergency number112000
Elevation20 m31 m
Main airportDublin Airport (DUB)9 km from centre200 non-stop destinationsMelbourne Airport (MEL)19 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureDublinMelbourne
City population592,7135,350,705
People per km²5,154535
Museums within 10 km4043
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

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