VacationSelector
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens
The yellow Palacio Canton on Paseo de Montejo, Merida
MeridaThe yellow Palacio Canton on Paseo de Montejo

Photos: Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Merida by Mariposa2723, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Edinburgh or Merida?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Merida for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Merida’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, Merida 50: Merida leads by 28 points.
Food & drink. Edinburgh 53, Merida 72: Merida leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Edinburgh 75, Merida 64: Edinburgh leads by 11 points.
Nightlife. Edinburgh 50, Merida 42: Edinburgh leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Edinburgh 75, Merida 48: Edinburgh leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Edinburgh 75, Merida 80: Merida leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Edinburgh 62, Merida 50: Edinburgh leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Edinburgh 74, Merida 45: Edinburgh leads by 29 points.
Shopping & style. Edinburgh and Merida are level on 50.
Affordability. Edinburgh 30, Merida 75: Merida leads by 45 points.
Live music & performing arts. Edinburgh 72, Merida 52: Edinburgh leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Edinburgh 34, Merida 40: Merida leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Edinburgh and Merida.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Edinburgh
56match

Wins on getting around and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Merida
56match

Wins on prices and beaches 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

Merida in July

35 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
148 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
27 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
EdinburghMerida

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). Merida: 1991-2020 normals, Merida / lic Manuel Crecencio (5.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEdinburghMerida
Official languageEnglishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112 or 999911
Elevation47 m12 m
Main airportEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinationsManuel Crescencio Rejón International Airport (MID)5 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureEdinburghMerida
City population488,050892,363
People per km²1,8841,010
Museums within 10 km325
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
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 Merida 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.