VacationSelector
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens
The church of San Francisco under a blue sky, Quito
QuitoThe church of San Francisco under a blue sky

Photos: Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Quito by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Edinburgh or Quito?

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
  • families
  • getting around

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

Choose Quito for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Quito’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, Quito 5: Edinburgh leads by 17 points.
Food & drink. Edinburgh 53, Quito 54: Quito leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Edinburgh 75, Quito 77: Quito leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Edinburgh 50, Quito 40: Edinburgh leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Edinburgh 75, Quito 86: Quito leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Edinburgh 75, Quito 55: Edinburgh leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Edinburgh 62, Quito 32: Edinburgh leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Edinburgh 74, Quito 45: Edinburgh leads by 29 points.
Shopping & style. Edinburgh 50, Quito 40: Edinburgh leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Edinburgh 30, Quito 78: Quito leads by 48 points.
Live music & performing arts. Edinburgh 72, Quito 38: Edinburgh leads by 34 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Edinburgh 34, Quito 44: Quito leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Edinburgh and Quito.

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 families with your weighting.

Quito
50match

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

Quito in July

18 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
EdinburghQuito

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.

Quito's station stands 208 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Edinburgh: 1991-2020 normals, Edinburgh Airport (10 km from centre). Quito: 1961-1990 normals, Izobamba-Santa Catalina (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEdinburghQuito
Official languageEnglishSpanish, Shuar, Northern Quichua
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number112 or 999911
Elevation47 m2,850 m
Main airportEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinationsMariscal Sucre International Airport (UIO)20 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureEdinburghQuito
City population488,0501,763,275
People per km²1,8844,735
Museums within 10 km3216
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km32
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 Quito 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.