VacationSelector
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens
The red five-storey pagoda of Tocho-ji, Fukuoka
FukuokaThe red five-storey pagoda of Tocho-ji

Photos: Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Fukuoka by Nick-D, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Edinburgh or Fukuoka?

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

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Fukuoka for

  • food and drink
  • beaches
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Fukuoka’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, Fukuoka 50: Fukuoka leads by 28 points.
Food & drink. Edinburgh 53, Fukuoka 82: Fukuoka leads by 29 points.
Culture & sights. Edinburgh 75, Fukuoka 50: Edinburgh leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Edinburgh 50, Fukuoka 60: Fukuoka leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Edinburgh 75, Fukuoka 62: Edinburgh leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Edinburgh 75, Fukuoka 84: Fukuoka leads by 9 points.
Good for families. Edinburgh 62, Fukuoka 78: Fukuoka leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Edinburgh 74, Fukuoka 82: Fukuoka leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Edinburgh 50, Fukuoka 65: Fukuoka leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Edinburgh 30, Fukuoka 58: Fukuoka leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Edinburgh 72, Fukuoka 45: Edinburgh leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Edinburgh 34, Fukuoka 60: Fukuoka leads by 26 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Edinburgh and Fukuoka.

Your match

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

Edinburgh
56match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights with your weighting.

Fukuoka
Best match
65match

Wins on food and drink and beaches 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

Fukuoka in July

31 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
301 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
EdinburghFukuoka

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). Fukuoka: 1991-2020 normals, Fukuoka (1.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEdinburghFukuoka
Official languageEnglishJapanese
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Yen (JPY)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+9
Emergency number112 or 999Police 110, fire 119
Elevation47 m8 m
Main airportEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinationsFukuoka Airport (FUK)5 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureEdinburghFukuoka
City population488,0501,603,043
People per km²1,8844,715
Museums within 10 km3223
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km32
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Edinburgh or Fukuoka 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.