VacationSelector
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens
The Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign, Las Vegas
Las VegasThe Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign

Photos: Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Las Vegas by Christian David, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Edinburgh or Las Vegas?

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
  • day trips
  • families

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

Choose Las Vegas for

  • nightlife
  • food and drink
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Las Vegas’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, Las Vegas 10: Edinburgh leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Edinburgh 53, Las Vegas 68: Las Vegas leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Edinburgh 75, Las Vegas 25: Edinburgh leads by 50 points.
Nightlife. Edinburgh 50, Las Vegas 88: Las Vegas leads by 38 points.
Nature & outdoors. Edinburgh 75, Las Vegas 68: Edinburgh leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Edinburgh 75, Las Vegas 25: Edinburgh leads by 50 points.
Good for families. Edinburgh 62, Las Vegas 25: Edinburgh leads by 37 points.
Getting around. Edinburgh 74, Las Vegas 38: Edinburgh leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Edinburgh 50, Las Vegas 64: Las Vegas leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Edinburgh 30, Las Vegas 35: Las Vegas leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Edinburgh 72, Las Vegas 78: Las Vegas leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Edinburgh 34, Las Vegas 40: Las Vegas leads by 6 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Edinburgh and Las Vegas.

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 day trips with your weighting.

Las Vegas
47match

Wins on nightlife and food and drink 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

Las Vegas in July

40 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
EdinburghLas Vegas

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). Las Vegas: 1991-2020 normals, McCarran International Airport (8.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEdinburghLas Vegas
Official languageEnglish-
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999911
Elevation47 m610 m
Main airportEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinationsHarry Reid International Airport (LAS)4 km from centre159 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureEdinburghLas Vegas
City population488,050641,903
People per km²1,8841,843
Museums within 10 km3221
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 Las Vegas 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.