VacationSelector
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Los Angeles
Los AngelesThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier

Photos: Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Los Angeles by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Edinburgh or Los Angeles?

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

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Los Angeles for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Los Angeles’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, Los Angeles 60: Los Angeles leads by 38 points.
Food & drink. Edinburgh 53, Los Angeles 84: Los Angeles leads by 31 points.
Culture & sights. Edinburgh 75, Los Angeles 66: Edinburgh leads by 9 points.
Nightlife. Edinburgh 50, Los Angeles 67: Los Angeles leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Edinburgh 75, Los Angeles 80: Los Angeles leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Edinburgh 75, Los Angeles 60: Edinburgh leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Edinburgh 62, Los Angeles 84: Los Angeles leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Edinburgh 74, Los Angeles 25: Edinburgh leads by 49 points.
Shopping & style. Edinburgh 50, Los Angeles 80: Los Angeles leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Edinburgh 30, Los Angeles 24: Edinburgh leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Edinburgh 72, Los Angeles 83: Los Angeles leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Edinburgh 34, Los Angeles 60: Los Angeles leads by 26 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Edinburgh
56match

Wins on getting around and day trips with your weighting.

Los Angeles
Best match
64match

Wins on beaches 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

Los Angeles in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
EdinburghLos Angeles

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). Los Angeles: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (18.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEdinburghLos Angeles
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 m106 m
Main airportEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinationsLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)19 km from centre177 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureEdinburghLos Angeles
City population488,0503,898,747
People per km²1,8842,994
Museums within 10 km3239
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

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