VacationSelector
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens
The old Tampa Bay Hotel across the river, Tampa
TampaThe old Tampa Bay Hotel across the river

Photos: Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Tampa by Ken Lund, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Edinburgh or Tampa?

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
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Tampa for

  • beaches
  • families
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Tampa’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, Tampa 70: Tampa leads by 48 points.
Food & drink. Edinburgh 53, Tampa 57: Tampa leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Edinburgh 75, Tampa 42: Edinburgh leads by 33 points.
Nightlife. Edinburgh 50, Tampa 52: Tampa leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Edinburgh 75, Tampa 55: Edinburgh leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Edinburgh 75, Tampa 54: Edinburgh leads by 21 points.
Good for families. Edinburgh 62, Tampa 78: Tampa leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Edinburgh 74, Tampa 22: Edinburgh leads by 52 points.
Shopping & style. Edinburgh 50, Tampa 40: Edinburgh leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Edinburgh 30, Tampa 40: Tampa leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Edinburgh 72, Tampa 47: Edinburgh leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Edinburgh 34, Tampa 30: Edinburgh leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Edinburgh and Tampa.

Your match

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

Edinburgh
Best match
56match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

Tampa
49match

Wins on beaches and families 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

Tampa in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
197 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
EdinburghTampa

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). Tampa: 1991-2020 normals, Tampa International Airport (7.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEdinburghTampa
Official languageEnglish-
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999911
Elevation47 m30 m
Main airportEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinationsTampa International Airport (TPA)8 km from centre101 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureEdinburghTampa
City population488,050384,959
People per km²1,884848
Museums within 10 km326
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 Tampa 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.