VacationSelector
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens
Palacio Salvo under a blue sky, Montevideo
MontevideoPalacio Salvo under a blue sky

Photos: Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Montevideo by Andrés Franchi Ugart…, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Edinburgh or Montevideo?

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
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose Montevideo for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Montevideo’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, Montevideo 55: Montevideo leads by 33 points.
Food & drink. Edinburgh 53, Montevideo 57: Montevideo leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Edinburgh 75, Montevideo 54: Edinburgh leads by 21 points.
Nightlife. Edinburgh and Montevideo are level on 50.
Nature & outdoors. Edinburgh 75, Montevideo 34: Edinburgh leads by 41 points.
Day trips. Edinburgh 75, Montevideo 55: Edinburgh leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Edinburgh 62, Montevideo 55: Edinburgh leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Edinburgh 74, Montevideo 54: Edinburgh leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Edinburgh 50, Montevideo 36: Edinburgh leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Edinburgh 30, Montevideo 42: Montevideo leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Edinburgh 72, Montevideo 57: Edinburgh leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Edinburgh 34, Montevideo 38: Montevideo leads by 4 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Edinburgh
Best match
56match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and culture and sights with your weighting.

Montevideo
49match

Wins on beaches and prices 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

Montevideo in July

15 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
99 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
11 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
EdinburghMontevideo

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). Montevideo: 1991-2020 normals, Carrasco (19.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEdinburghMontevideo
Official languageEnglish-
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Peso Uruguayo (UYU)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCFIL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-3
Emergency number112 or 999911
Elevation47 m41 m
Main airportEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinationsCarrasco General Cesáreo L. Berisso International Airport (MVD)17 km from centre15 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureEdinburghMontevideo
City population488,0501,302,954
People per km²1,8841,785
Museums within 10 km3236
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone4 months

Where else could you go?

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