VacationSelector
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens
Florence and the Arno, Florence
FlorenceFlorence and the Arno

Photos: Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Florence by Wolfgang Weiser, Pexels License.

Edinburgh or Florence?

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 Edinburgh for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Florence for

  • day trips
  • shopping
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Florence’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. Edinburgh 22, Florence 14: Edinburgh leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Edinburgh 53, Florence 74: Florence leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Edinburgh 75, Florence 94: Florence leads by 19 points.
Nightlife. Edinburgh 50, Florence 42: Edinburgh leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Edinburgh 75, Florence 58: Edinburgh leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Edinburgh 75, Florence 98: Florence leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Edinburgh 62, Florence 45: Edinburgh leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Edinburgh 74, Florence 78: Florence leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Edinburgh 50, Florence 72: Florence leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Edinburgh 30, Florence 35: Florence leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Edinburgh 72, Florence 58: Edinburgh leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Edinburgh 34, Florence 42: Florence leads by 8 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Edinburgh
56match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and families with your weighting.

Florence
Best match
59match

Wins on day trips and shopping with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Florence in July

32 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
37 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
EdinburghFlorence

Where the figures come from

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.

Florence 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.

Florence's sunshine is measured 71 km from the centre, at Pisa / S. Giusto.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Edinburgh: 1991-2020 normals, Edinburgh Airport (10 km from centre). Florence: 1995-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Firenze / Peretola (5.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEdinburghFlorence
Official languageEnglishItalian
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999112
Elevation47 m50 m
Main airportEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinationsFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)6 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureEdinburghFlorence
City population488,050360,930
People per km²1,8843,528
Museums within 10 km32141
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km34
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Edinburgh or Florence 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.