VacationSelector
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens
São Paulo Cathedral, Sao Paulo
Sao PauloSão Paulo Cathedral

Photos: Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Sao Paulo by Webysther Nunes, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Edinburgh or Sao Paulo?

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

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Sao Paulo for

  • nightlife
  • prices
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Sao Paulo’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, Sao Paulo 42: Sao Paulo leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. Edinburgh 53, Sao Paulo 84: Sao Paulo leads by 31 points.
Culture & sights. Edinburgh 75, Sao Paulo 60: Edinburgh leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Edinburgh 50, Sao Paulo 86: Sao Paulo leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Edinburgh 75, Sao Paulo 48: Edinburgh leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Edinburgh 75, Sao Paulo 47: Edinburgh leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Edinburgh 62, Sao Paulo 52: Edinburgh leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Edinburgh 74, Sao Paulo 44: Edinburgh leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Edinburgh 50, Sao Paulo 70: Sao Paulo leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Edinburgh 30, Sao Paulo 62: Sao Paulo leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Edinburgh 72, Sao Paulo 76: Sao Paulo leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Edinburgh 34, Sao Paulo 25: Edinburgh leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Edinburgh and Sao Paulo.

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 getting around and day trips with your weighting.

Sao Paulo
58match

Wins on nightlife and prices 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

Sao Paulo in July

23 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
53 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
EdinburghSao Paulo

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). Sao Paulo: 1991-2020 normals, Sao Paulo (5.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEdinburghSao Paulo
Official languageEnglishPortuguese
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-3
Emergency number112 or 999Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation47 m760 m
Main airportEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinationsSão Paulo/Guarulhos–Governor André Franco Montoro International Airport (GRU)21 km from centre104 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureEdinburghSao Paulo
City population488,05011,451,999
People per km²1,8847,519
Museums within 10 km3290
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 Sao Paulo 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.