VacationSelector
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens
Ferries off the Kordon promenade, Izmir
IzmirFerries off the Kordon promenade

Photos: Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Izmir by Toygar Par, Pexels License.

Edinburgh or Izmir?

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
  • getting around

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

Choose Izmir for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Izmir’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, Izmir 62: Izmir leads by 40 points.
Food & drink. Edinburgh 53, Izmir 72: Izmir leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Edinburgh 75, Izmir 55: Edinburgh leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Edinburgh 50, Izmir 60: Izmir leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Edinburgh 75, Izmir 66: Edinburgh leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Edinburgh 75, Izmir 86: Izmir leads by 11 points.
Good for families. Edinburgh 62, Izmir 55: Edinburgh leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Edinburgh 74, Izmir 63: Edinburgh leads by 11 points.
Shopping & style. Edinburgh 50, Izmir 55: Izmir leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Edinburgh 30, Izmir 66: Izmir leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. Edinburgh 72, Izmir 48: Edinburgh leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Edinburgh 34, Izmir 57: Izmir leads by 23 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Edinburgh and Izmir.

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.

Izmir
Best match
62match

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

Izmir in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
13 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
EdinburghIzmir

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). Izmir: 1991-2020 normals, Izmir (3.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEdinburghIzmir
Official languageEnglishTurkish
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Turkish Lira (TRY)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+3
Emergency number112 or 999112
Elevation47 m2 m
Main airportEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinationsAdnan Menderes International Airport (ADB)13 km from centre120 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureEdinburghIzmir
City population488,0504,493,242
People per km²1,8844,760
Museums within 10 km3229
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone5 months

Where else could you go?

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