VacationSelector
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens
The lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park, Paphos
PaphosThe lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park

Photos: Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Paphos by Nikodem Nijaki, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Edinburgh or Paphos?

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

  • live music and the arts
  • getting around
  • shopping

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

Choose Paphos for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Paphos’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, Paphos 76: Paphos leads by 54 points.
Food & drink. Edinburgh 53, Paphos 45: Edinburgh leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Edinburgh 75, Paphos 62: Edinburgh leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Edinburgh 50, Paphos 38: Edinburgh leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Edinburgh 75, Paphos 70: Edinburgh leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Edinburgh 75, Paphos 64: Edinburgh leads by 11 points.
Good for families. Edinburgh 62, Paphos 68: Paphos leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Edinburgh 74, Paphos 40: Edinburgh leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. Edinburgh 50, Paphos 25: Edinburgh leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Edinburgh 30, Paphos 52: Paphos leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Edinburgh 72, Paphos 22: Edinburgh leads by 50 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Edinburgh 34, Paphos 42: Paphos leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Edinburgh and Paphos.

Your match

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

Edinburgh
Best match
56match

Wins on live music and the arts and getting around with your weighting.

Paphos
50match

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

Paphos in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
27 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
EdinburghPaphos

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.

Paphos 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Edinburgh: 1991-2020 normals, Edinburgh Airport (10 km from centre). Paphos: 1991-2020 normals, Paphos Airport (8.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEdinburghPaphos
Official languageEnglishTurkish, Greek, Modern Greek
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999112
Elevation47 m72 m
Main airportEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinationsPaphos International Airport (PFO)8 km from centre58 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days17 days

By the numbers

MeasureEdinburghPaphos
City population488,05035,961
People per km²1,8841,987
Museums within 10 km324
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km32
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone6 months

Where else could you go?

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