VacationSelector
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens
Taipei 101 and the skyline from Elephant Mountain, Taipei
TaipeiTaipei 101 and the skyline from Elephant Mountain

Photos: Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Taipei by Another Believer, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Edinburgh or Taipei?

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
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Taipei for

  • wellness
  • prices
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Taipei’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, Taipei 40: Taipei leads by 18 points.
Food & drink. Edinburgh 53, Taipei 88: Taipei leads by 35 points.
Culture & sights. Edinburgh 75, Taipei 68: Edinburgh leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Edinburgh 50, Taipei 58: Taipei leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Edinburgh 75, Taipei 78: Taipei leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Edinburgh 75, Taipei 76: Taipei leads by 1 points.
Good for families. Edinburgh 62, Taipei 72: Taipei leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Edinburgh 74, Taipei 86: Taipei leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Edinburgh 50, Taipei 70: Taipei leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Edinburgh 30, Taipei 66: Taipei leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. Edinburgh 72, Taipei 55: Edinburgh leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Edinburgh 34, Taipei 80: Taipei leads by 46 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Edinburgh
56match

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

Taipei
Best match
70match

Wins on wellness 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

Taipei in July

35 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
288 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
EdinburghTaipei

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.

Taipei 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). Taipei: 1992-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sungshan / Taipei (3.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEdinburghTaipei
Official languageEnglishTaiwanese Sign Language, Amis, Taiwanese Hokkien, Rukai, Bunun, Kanakanavu, Standard Taiwanese Mandarin, Paiwan, Yami, Atayal, Saaroa, Kavalan, Tsou, Seediq, Puyuma, Saisiyat, Sakizaya, Taiwanese Hakka, Truku, Matsu dialect, Kinmen dialect, Wuqiu dialect
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)New Taiwan Dollar (TWD)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number112 or 999110 or 112 or 119
Elevation47 m10 m
Main airportEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinationsTaiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TPE)33 km from centre
Public holidays this year10 days-

By the numbers

MeasureEdinburghTaipei
City population488,0502,429,429
People per km²1,8848,938
Museums within 10 km3269
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone8 months

Where else could you go?

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