VacationSelector
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens
The old town below the fortress, Salzburg
SalzburgThe old town below the fortress

Photos: Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Salzburg by Leonhard Niederwimmer, Pexels License.

Edinburgh or Salzburg?

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

  • nightlife
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Salzburg for

  • wellness
  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Salzburg’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, Salzburg 35: Salzburg leads by 13 points.
Food & drink. Edinburgh 53, Salzburg 45: Edinburgh leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Edinburgh 75, Salzburg 72: Edinburgh leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Edinburgh 50, Salzburg 25: Edinburgh leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Edinburgh 75, Salzburg 86: Salzburg leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Edinburgh 75, Salzburg 80: Salzburg leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Edinburgh 62, Salzburg 65: Salzburg leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Edinburgh 74, Salzburg 72: Edinburgh leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Edinburgh 50, Salzburg 48: Edinburgh leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Edinburgh 30, Salzburg 32: Salzburg leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Edinburgh 72, Salzburg 80: Salzburg leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Edinburgh 34, Salzburg 55: Salzburg leads by 21 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Edinburgh and Salzburg.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Edinburgh
56match

Wins on nightlife and food and drink with your weighting.

Salzburg
58match

Wins on wellness 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

Salzburg in July

25 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
159 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
EdinburghSalzburg

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). Salzburg: 1991-2020 normals, Salzburg (3.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEdinburghSalzburg
Official languageEnglishGerman, Austrian Sign Language
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999112
Elevation47 m424 m
Main airportEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinationsSalzburg Airport (SZG)3 km from centre64 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureEdinburghSalzburg
City population488,050155,021
People per km²1,8842,360
Museums within 10 km3238
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km33
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 Salzburg 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.