VacationSelector
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens
The Colosseum, Rome
RomeThe Colosseum

Photos: Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Rome by Tournasol7, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Edinburgh or Rome?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • families

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

Choose Rome for

  • food and drink
  • beaches
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Rome’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, Rome 50: Rome leads by 28 points.
Food & drink. Edinburgh 53, Rome 82: Rome leads by 29 points.
Culture & sights. Edinburgh 75, Rome 99: Rome leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Edinburgh 50, Rome 58: Rome leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Edinburgh 75, Rome 58: Edinburgh leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Edinburgh 75, Rome 92: Rome leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Edinburgh 62, Rome 50: Edinburgh leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Edinburgh 74, Rome 60: Edinburgh leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Edinburgh 50, Rome 72: Rome leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Edinburgh 30, Rome 38: Rome leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Edinburgh 72, Rome 68: Edinburgh leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Edinburgh 34, Rome 40: Rome leads by 6 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Edinburgh
56match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around with your weighting.

Rome
Best match
64match

Wins on food and drink 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

Rome in July

31 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
21 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
EdinburghRome

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.

Rome's sunshine is measured 31 km from the centre, at Vigna Di Valle.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Edinburgh: 1991-2020 normals, Edinburgh Airport (10 km from centre). Rome: 1991-2020 normals, Roma / Ciampino (15.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEdinburghRome
Official languageEnglishItalian
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999112
Elevation47 m21 m
Main airportEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinationsRome–Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci International Airport (FCO)23 km from centre242 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureEdinburghRome
City population488,0502,748,109
People per km²1,8842,135
Museums within 10 km32178
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km37
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone5 months

Where else could you go?

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