VacationSelector
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens
The Opera House from the water, Sydney
SydneyThe Opera House from the water

Photos: Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Sydney by Bernard Spragg, CC0.

Edinburgh or Sydney?

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
  • prices

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

Choose Sydney for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Sydney’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, Sydney 95: Sydney leads by 73 points.
Food & drink. Edinburgh 53, Sydney 77: Sydney leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Edinburgh 75, Sydney 60: Edinburgh leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Edinburgh 50, Sydney 60: Sydney leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Edinburgh 75, Sydney 85: Sydney leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Edinburgh 75, Sydney 50: Edinburgh leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Edinburgh 62, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Edinburgh 74, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 1 points.
Shopping & style. Edinburgh 50, Sydney 68: Sydney leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Edinburgh 30, Sydney 22: Edinburgh leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Edinburgh 72, Sydney 73: Sydney leads by 1 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Edinburgh 34, Sydney 55: Sydney leads by 21 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Edinburgh and Sydney.

Your match

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

Edinburgh
56match

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

Sydney
Best match
66match

Wins on beaches 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

Sydney in July

18 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
70 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
19 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
EdinburghSydney

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). Sydney: 1991-2020 normals, Sydney Airport (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEdinburghSydney
Official languageEnglishEnglish
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+10, UTC+11 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999000
Elevation47 m6 m
Main airportEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinationsSydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD)9 km from centre99 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureEdinburghSydney
City population488,0505,450,496
People per km²1,884449
Museums within 10 km3238
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km32
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Edinburgh or Sydney 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.