VacationSelector
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens
A classic car in front of the Capitolio, Havana
HavanaA classic car in front of the Capitolio

Photos: Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Havana by AXP Photography, Pexels License.

Edinburgh or Havana?

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
  • day trips
  • getting around

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

Choose Havana for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Havana’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, Havana 64: Havana leads by 42 points.
Food & drink. Edinburgh 53, Havana 40: Edinburgh leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Edinburgh 75, Havana 77: Havana leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Edinburgh 50, Havana 60: Havana leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Edinburgh 75, Havana 34: Edinburgh leads by 41 points.
Day trips. Edinburgh 75, Havana 38: Edinburgh leads by 37 points.
Good for families. Edinburgh 62, Havana 34: Edinburgh leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Edinburgh 74, Havana 38: Edinburgh leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Edinburgh 50, Havana 30: Edinburgh leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Edinburgh 30, Havana 58: Havana leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Edinburgh 72, Havana 74: Havana leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Edinburgh 34, Havana 22: Edinburgh leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Edinburgh and Havana.

Your match

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

Edinburgh
Best match
56match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and day trips with your weighting.

Havana
47match

Wins on beaches and prices 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

Havana in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
118 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
EdinburghHavana

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.

Havana 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Edinburgh: 1991-2020 normals, Edinburgh Airport (10 km from centre). Havana: 1991-2020 normals, Casa Blanca, La Habana (3.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEdinburghHavana
Official languageEnglishSpanish
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Cuban Peso (CUP)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999Police 106, ambulance 104, fire 105
Elevation47 m59 m
Main airportEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinationsJosé Martí International Airport (HAV)17 km from centre21 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureEdinburghHavana
City population488,0502,492,618
People per km²1,8843,423
Museums within 10 km3212
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
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 Havana 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.