VacationSelector
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens
The terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía, Santiago
SantiagoThe terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía

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

Edinburgh or Santiago?

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

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • beaches

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

Choose Santiago for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Santiago’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 12: Edinburgh leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Edinburgh 53, Santiago 60: Santiago leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Edinburgh 75, Santiago 52: Edinburgh leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Edinburgh 50, Santiago 60: Santiago leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Edinburgh 75, Santiago 83: Santiago leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Edinburgh 75, Santiago 70: Edinburgh leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Edinburgh 62, Santiago 57: Edinburgh leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Edinburgh 74, Santiago 68: Edinburgh leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Edinburgh 50, Santiago 52: Santiago leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Edinburgh 30, Santiago 58: Santiago leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Edinburgh 72, Santiago 55: Edinburgh leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Edinburgh 34, Santiago 37: Santiago leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Edinburgh and Santiago.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Edinburgh
56match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Santiago
55match

Wins on prices and nightlife 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 in July

14 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
52 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
EdinburghSantiago

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: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago Q. Normal (3.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEdinburghSantiago
Official languageEnglishSpanish
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation47 m575 m
Main airportEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)14 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureEdinburghSantiago
City population488,0506,257,516
People per km²1,8847,468
Museums within 10 km3254
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
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 Santiago 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.