VacationSelector
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens
The skyline and yachts on the canals, Fort Lauderdale
Fort LauderdaleThe skyline and yachts on the canals

Photos: Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Fort Lauderdale by KeanoManu, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Edinburgh or Fort Lauderdale?

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

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

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

Choose Fort Lauderdale for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Fort Lauderdale’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, Fort Lauderdale 88: Fort Lauderdale leads by 66 points.
Food & drink. Edinburgh 53, Fort Lauderdale 47: Edinburgh leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Edinburgh 75, Fort Lauderdale 28: Edinburgh leads by 47 points.
Nightlife. Edinburgh 50, Fort Lauderdale 52: Fort Lauderdale leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Edinburgh 75, Fort Lauderdale 62: Edinburgh leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Edinburgh 75, Fort Lauderdale 58: Edinburgh leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Edinburgh 62, Fort Lauderdale 66: Fort Lauderdale leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Edinburgh 74, Fort Lauderdale 32: Edinburgh leads by 42 points.
Shopping & style. Edinburgh 50, Fort Lauderdale 52: Fort Lauderdale leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Edinburgh 30, Fort Lauderdale 32: Fort Lauderdale leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Edinburgh 72, Fort Lauderdale 42: Edinburgh leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Edinburgh 34, Fort Lauderdale 40: Fort Lauderdale leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Edinburgh and Fort Lauderdale.

Your match

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

Edinburgh
Best match
56match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around with your weighting.

Fort Lauderdale
50match

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.

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

Fort Lauderdale in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
166 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
EdinburghFort Lauderdale

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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Edinburgh: 1991-2020 normals, Edinburgh Airport (10 km from centre). Fort Lauderdale: 1991-2020 normals, Fort Lauderdale (7.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEdinburghFort Lauderdale
Official languageEnglish-
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999911
Elevation47 m11 m
Main airportEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinationsFort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport (FLL)7 km from centre136 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureEdinburghFort Lauderdale
City population488,050182,760
People per km²1,8841,829
Museums within 10 km326
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Edinburgh or Fort Lauderdale 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.