VacationSelector
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens
Lower Broadway and its honky-tonks, Nashville
NashvilleLower Broadway and its honky-tonks

Photos: Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Nashville by Warren LeMay, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Edinburgh or Nashville?

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
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Nashville for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Nashville’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, Nashville 14: Edinburgh leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Edinburgh 53, Nashville 62: Nashville leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Edinburgh 75, Nashville 50: Edinburgh leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Edinburgh 50, Nashville 70: Nashville leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Edinburgh 75, Nashville 46: Edinburgh leads by 29 points.
Day trips. Edinburgh 75, Nashville 52: Edinburgh leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Edinburgh 62, Nashville 55: Edinburgh leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Edinburgh 74, Nashville 30: Edinburgh leads by 44 points.
Shopping & style. Edinburgh 50, Nashville 42: Edinburgh leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Edinburgh and Nashville are level on 30.
Live music & performing arts. Edinburgh 72, Nashville 82: Nashville leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Edinburgh 34, Nashville 20: Edinburgh leads by 14 points.
0255075100

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

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 nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Nashville
46match

Wins on nightlife and live music and the arts 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

Nashville in July

32 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
104 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
EdinburghNashville

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). Nashville: 1991-2020 normals, Nashville Airport (9.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEdinburghNashville
Official languageEnglish-
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999911
Elevation47 m182 m
Main airportEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinationsNashville International Airport (BNA)10 km from centre122 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureEdinburghNashville
City population488,050689,447
People per km²1,884506
Museums within 10 km3212
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 Nashville 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.