VacationSelector
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens
The Outback, with the Tenmile Range in the distance, Keystone
KeystoneThe Outback, with the Tenmile Range in the distance

Photos: Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Keystone by Rudi Riet, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Edinburgh or Keystone?

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
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

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

Choose Keystone for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Keystone’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, Keystone 5: Edinburgh leads by 17 points.
Food & drink. Edinburgh 53, Keystone 27: Edinburgh leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Edinburgh 75, Keystone 7: Edinburgh leads by 68 points.
Nightlife. Edinburgh 50, Keystone 12: Edinburgh leads by 38 points.
Nature & outdoors. Edinburgh 75, Keystone 93: Keystone leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Edinburgh 75, Keystone 55: Edinburgh leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Edinburgh 62, Keystone 66: Keystone leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Edinburgh 74, Keystone 50: Edinburgh leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Edinburgh 50, Keystone 22: Edinburgh leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Edinburgh 30, Keystone 12: Edinburgh leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Edinburgh 72, Keystone 22: Edinburgh leads by 50 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Edinburgh 34, Keystone 32: Edinburgh leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Edinburgh and Keystone.

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 live music and the arts with your weighting.

Keystone
34match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and families 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

Keystone in July

21 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
39 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-5°0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
EdinburghKeystone

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.

Keystone's temperatures are measured 51 km from the centre, at Leadville / Stringtown.

Keystone's station stands 232 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Keystone 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). Keystone: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Leadville / Stringtown (50.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEdinburghKeystone
Official languageEnglish-
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999911
Elevation47 m2,796 m
Main airportEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinationsDenver International Airport (DEN)116 km from centre231 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureEdinburghKeystone
City population488,0501,369
People per km²1,88413
Museums within 10 km320
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
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 Keystone 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.