VacationSelector
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens
Rabelo boats on the Douro and the Ribeira, Porto
PortoRabelo boats on the Douro and the Ribeira

Photos: Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Porto by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Edinburgh or Porto?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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

Choose Porto for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Porto’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, Porto 40: Porto leads by 18 points.
Food & drink. Edinburgh 53, Porto 70: Porto leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Edinburgh 75, Porto 68: Edinburgh leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Edinburgh 50, Porto 65: Porto leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Edinburgh 75, Porto 64: Edinburgh leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Edinburgh 75, Porto 79: Porto leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Edinburgh 62, Porto 52: Edinburgh leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Edinburgh 74, Porto 66: Edinburgh leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Edinburgh 50, Porto 52: Porto leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Edinburgh 30, Porto 62: Porto leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Edinburgh 72, Porto 52: Edinburgh leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Edinburgh and Porto are level on 34.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Edinburgh
56match

Wins on live music and the arts and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Porto
Best match
59match

Wins on prices and beaches 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

Porto in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
22 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
17 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
EdinburghPorto

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). Porto: 1991-2020 normals, Porto / Serra Do Pilar (2.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEdinburghPorto
Official languageEnglishPortuguese
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999112
Elevation47 m104 m
Main airportEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinationsFrancisco de Sá Carneiro Airport (OPO)12 km from centre134 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureEdinburghPorto
City population488,050273,476
People per km²1,8846,606
Museums within 10 km3242
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km33
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

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