VacationSelector
The Campanile, Trinity College, Dublin
DublinThe Campanile, Trinity College
The Opera House from the water, Sydney
SydneyThe Opera House from the water

Photos: Dublin by David Kernan, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Sydney by Bernard Spragg, CC0.

Dublin or Sydney?

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
  • nightlife

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

Choose Sydney for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Sydney’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, Sydney 95: Sydney leads by 68 points.
Food & drink. Dublin 50, Sydney 77: Sydney leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Dublin 64, Sydney 60: Dublin leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Dublin 62, Sydney 60: Dublin leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Dublin 70, Sydney 85: Sydney leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Dublin 72, Sydney 50: Dublin leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Dublin 57, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Dublin 66, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 9 points.
Shopping & style. Dublin 54, Sydney 68: Sydney leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Dublin 20, Sydney 22: Sydney leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Dublin 65, Sydney 73: Sydney leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Dublin 25, Sydney 55: Sydney leads by 30 points.
0255075100

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

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.

Sydney
Best match
66match

Wins on beaches and wellness 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

Sydney in July

18 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
70 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
19 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
DublinSydney

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Dublin: 1991-2020 normals, Dublin Airport (9.3 km from centre). Sydney: 1991-2020 normals, Sydney Airport (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDublinSydney
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 m6 m
Main airportDublin Airport (DUB)9 km from centre200 non-stop destinationsSydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD)9 km from centre99 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureDublinSydney
City population592,7135,450,496
People per km²5,154449
Museums within 10 km4038
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone6 months

Where else could you go?

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