VacationSelector
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens
The old railway depot in the snow, Steamboat Springs
Steamboat SpringsThe old railway depot in the snow

Photos: Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Steamboat Springs by Jeffrey Beall, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Edinburgh or Steamboat Springs?

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

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Steamboat Springs for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Steamboat Springs’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, Steamboat Springs 7: Edinburgh leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Edinburgh 53, Steamboat Springs 30: Edinburgh leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Edinburgh 75, Steamboat Springs 14: Edinburgh leads by 61 points.
Nightlife. Edinburgh 50, Steamboat Springs 20: Edinburgh leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Edinburgh 75, Steamboat Springs 88: Steamboat Springs leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Edinburgh 75, Steamboat Springs 12: Edinburgh leads by 63 points.
Good for families. Edinburgh and Steamboat Springs are level on 62.
Getting around. Edinburgh 74, Steamboat Springs 46: Edinburgh leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. Edinburgh 50, Steamboat Springs 22: Edinburgh leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Edinburgh 30, Steamboat Springs 17: Edinburgh leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Edinburgh 72, Steamboat Springs 28: Edinburgh leads by 44 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Edinburgh 34, Steamboat Springs 70: Steamboat Springs leads by 36 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Edinburgh and Steamboat Springs.

Your match

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

Edinburgh
Best match
56match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights with your weighting.

Steamboat Springs
35match

Wins on wellness and nature and the outdoors 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

Steamboat Springs in July

28 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
31 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
EdinburghSteamboat Springs

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.

Steamboat Springs 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Edinburgh: 1991-2020 normals, Edinburgh Airport (10 km from centre). Steamboat Springs: 2011-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Steamboat Springs / Steamboat Ii (5.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEdinburghSteamboat Springs
Official languageEnglish-
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999911
Elevation47 m2,052 m
Main airportEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinationsYampa Valley Airport (HDN)33 km from centre17 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureEdinburghSteamboat Springs
City population488,05013,224
People per km²1,884503
Museums within 10 km320
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 Steamboat Springs 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.