VacationSelector
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens
The CN Tower and skyline from the Toronto Islands, Toronto
TorontoThe CN Tower and skyline from the Toronto Islands

Photos: Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Toronto by Dillan Payne, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Edinburgh or Toronto?

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

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Toronto for

  • food and drink
  • shopping
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Toronto’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, Toronto 34: Toronto leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Edinburgh 53, Toronto 70: Toronto leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Edinburgh 75, Toronto 50: Edinburgh leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Edinburgh 50, Toronto 62: Toronto leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Edinburgh 75, Toronto 52: Edinburgh leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Edinburgh 75, Toronto 50: Edinburgh leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Edinburgh 62, Toronto 74: Toronto leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Edinburgh 74, Toronto 65: Edinburgh leads by 9 points.
Shopping & style. Edinburgh 50, Toronto 66: Toronto leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Edinburgh 30, Toronto 34: Toronto leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Edinburgh and Toronto are level on 72.
Wellness & relaxation. Edinburgh 34, Toronto 33: Edinburgh leads by 1 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Edinburgh and Toronto.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Edinburgh
56match

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

Toronto
55match

Wins on food and drink and shopping 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

Toronto in July

27 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
83 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
EdinburghToronto

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). Toronto: 1991-2020 normals, Toronto City (1.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEdinburghToronto
Official languageEnglishFrench, English
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
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 m76 m
Main airportEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinationsToronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ)20 km from centre191 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureEdinburghToronto
City population488,0502,794,356
People per km²1,8844,434
Museums within 10 km3232
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone1 month

Where else could you go?

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