VacationSelector
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens
The Frauenkirche towers and the Mariensäule, Munich
MunichThe Frauenkirche towers and the Mariensäule

Photos: Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Munich by 0xd1ma, Pexels License.

Edinburgh or Munich?

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

Edinburgh does not lead in any category we score.

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

Choose Munich for

  • wellness
  • shopping
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Munich’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, Munich 28: Munich leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Edinburgh 53, Munich 62: Munich leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Edinburgh 75, Munich 79: Munich leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Edinburgh 50, Munich 56: Munich leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Edinburgh 75, Munich 82: Munich leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Edinburgh 75, Munich 86: Munich leads by 11 points.
Good for families. Edinburgh 62, Munich 78: Munich leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Edinburgh 74, Munich 86: Munich leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Edinburgh 50, Munich 72: Munich leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Edinburgh 30, Munich 32: Munich leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Edinburgh 72, Munich 84: Munich leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Edinburgh 34, Munich 62: Munich leads by 28 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Edinburgh
56match

Has no clear advantage with the weighting you have chosen.

Munich
Best match
67match

Wins on wellness and shopping 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

Munich in July

25 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
119 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
EdinburghMunich

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). Munich: 1991-2020 normals, München (1.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEdinburghMunich
Official languageEnglishGerman
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999112
Elevation47 m519 m
Main airportEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinationsMunich Airport (MUC)29 km from centre210 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureEdinburghMunich
City population488,0501,505,036
People per km²1,8844,844
Museums within 10 km3274
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
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 Munich 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.