VacationSelector
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens
The Nairobi skyline with the KICC tower, Nairobi
NairobiThe Nairobi skyline with the KICC tower

Photos: Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Nairobi by Lmwangi, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Edinburgh or Nairobi?

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 Nairobi for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Nairobi’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, Nairobi 4: Edinburgh leads by 18 points.
Food & drink. Edinburgh 53, Nairobi 48: Edinburgh leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Edinburgh 75, Nairobi 35: Edinburgh leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Edinburgh 50, Nairobi 58: Nairobi leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Edinburgh 75, Nairobi 84: Nairobi leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Edinburgh 75, Nairobi 28: Edinburgh leads by 47 points.
Good for families. Edinburgh 62, Nairobi 55: Edinburgh leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Edinburgh 74, Nairobi 20: Edinburgh leads by 54 points.
Shopping & style. Edinburgh 50, Nairobi 45: Edinburgh leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Edinburgh 30, Nairobi 60: Nairobi leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Edinburgh 72, Nairobi 35: Edinburgh leads by 37 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Edinburgh 34, Nairobi 25: Edinburgh leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Edinburgh and Nairobi.

Your match

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

Edinburgh
Best match
56match

Wins on getting around and day trips with your weighting.

Nairobi
41match

Wins on prices and nature and the outdoors 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

Nairobi in July

24 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
11 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
EdinburghNairobi

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). Nairobi: 1991-2020 normals, Nairobi ACC/FIC/RCC/MET/COM/ (13.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEdinburghNairobi
Official languageEnglishEnglish, Swahili
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Kenyan Shilling (KES)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+3
Emergency number112 or 999Police 112/999, ambulance 112/999, fire 112/999
Elevation47 m1,661 m
Main airportEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinationsJomo Kenyatta International Airport (NBO)13 km from centre60 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureEdinburghNairobi
City population488,0505,545,000
People per km²1,8847,967
Museums within 10 km324
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
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 Nairobi 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.