VacationSelector
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens
The cathedral above the old town, Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de CompostelaThe cathedral above the old town

Photos: Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Santiago de Compostela by Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez (Lmbuga), CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Edinburgh or Santiago de Compostela?

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
  • shopping

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

Choose Santiago de Compostela for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Santiago de Compostela’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, Santiago de Compostela 32: Santiago de Compostela leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Edinburgh 53, Santiago de Compostela 68: Santiago de Compostela leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Edinburgh 75, Santiago de Compostela 70: Edinburgh leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Edinburgh 50, Santiago de Compostela 45: Edinburgh leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Edinburgh 75, Santiago de Compostela 62: Edinburgh leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Edinburgh 75, Santiago de Compostela 72: Edinburgh leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Edinburgh 62, Santiago de Compostela 42: Edinburgh leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Edinburgh 74, Santiago de Compostela 70: Edinburgh leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Edinburgh 50, Santiago de Compostela 35: Edinburgh leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Edinburgh 30, Santiago de Compostela 64: Santiago de Compostela leads by 34 points.
Live music & performing arts. Edinburgh 72, Santiago de Compostela 40: Edinburgh leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Edinburgh 34, Santiago de Compostela 42: Santiago de Compostela leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Edinburgh and Santiago de Compostela.

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 live music and the arts and families with your weighting.

Santiago de Compostela
54match

Wins on prices and food and drink 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

Santiago de Compostela in July

25 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
41 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
17 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
EdinburghSantiago de Compostela

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). Santiago de Compostela: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago / Labacolla (8.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEdinburghSantiago de Compostela
Official languageEnglishSpanish
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 m260 m
Main airportEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinationsSantiago-Rosalía de Castro Airport (SCQ)10 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureEdinburghSantiago de Compostela
City population488,050100,965
People per km²1,884459
Museums within 10 km326
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km32
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 Santiago de Compostela 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.