VacationSelector
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens
The cathedral from Piazza del Duomo, Milan
MilanThe cathedral from Piazza del Duomo

Photos: Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Milan by Jiuguang Wang, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Edinburgh or Milan?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • beaches

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

Choose Milan for

  • shopping
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Milan’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, Milan 20: Edinburgh leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Edinburgh 53, Milan 78: Milan leads by 25 points.
Culture & sights. Edinburgh 75, Milan 78: Milan leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Edinburgh 50, Milan 66: Milan leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Edinburgh 75, Milan 65: Edinburgh leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Edinburgh 75, Milan 91: Milan leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Edinburgh 62, Milan 55: Edinburgh leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Edinburgh 74, Milan 79: Milan leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Edinburgh 50, Milan 92: Milan leads by 42 points.
Affordability. Edinburgh 30, Milan 33: Milan leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Edinburgh 72, Milan 82: Milan leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Edinburgh 34, Milan 42: Milan leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Edinburgh and Milan.

Your match

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

Edinburgh
56match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and families with your weighting.

Milan
Best match
65match

Wins on shopping 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

Milan in July

30 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
70 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
EdinburghMilan

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.

Milan 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.

Milan's sunshine is measured 41 km from the centre, at Novara / Cameri.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Edinburgh: 1991-2020 normals, Edinburgh Airport (10 km from centre). Milan: 1991-2020 normals, Milano / Linate (8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEdinburghMilan
Official languageEnglishItalian
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999112
Elevation47 m138 m
Main airportEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinationsMilan Malpensa International Airport (MXP)40 km from centre208 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureEdinburghMilan
City population488,0501,354,196
People per km²1,8847,453
Museums within 10 km3288
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km34
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 Milan 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.