VacationSelector
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens
The Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal, Venice
VeniceThe Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal

Photos: Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Venice by David Vives, Pexels License.

Edinburgh or Venice?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife
  • families

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

Choose Venice for

  • beaches
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Venice’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, Venice 56: Venice leads by 34 points.
Food & drink. Edinburgh 53, Venice 60: Venice leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Edinburgh 75, Venice 94: Venice leads by 19 points.
Nightlife. Edinburgh 50, Venice 27: Edinburgh leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Edinburgh 75, Venice 45: Edinburgh leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Edinburgh 75, Venice 86: Venice leads by 11 points.
Good for families. Edinburgh 62, Venice 45: Edinburgh leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Edinburgh 74, Venice 68: Edinburgh leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Edinburgh 50, Venice 57: Venice leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Edinburgh 30, Venice 20: Edinburgh leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Edinburgh 72, Venice 62: Edinburgh leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Edinburgh 34, Venice 40: Venice leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Edinburgh and Venice.

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 nature and the outdoors and nightlife with your weighting.

Venice
55match

Wins on beaches and culture and sights 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

Venice in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
61 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
EdinburghVenice

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.

Venice 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.

Venice's sunshine is measured 26 km from the centre, at Treviso / S. Angelo.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Edinburgh: 1991-2020 normals, Edinburgh Airport (10 km from centre). Venice: 1991-2020 normals, Venezia / Tessera (6.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEdinburghVenice
Official languageEnglishItalian
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999112
Elevation47 m2 m
Main airportEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinationsVenice Marco Polo Airport (VCE)7 km from centre103 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureEdinburghVenice
City population488,050250,369
People per km²1,884602
Museums within 10 km3252
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km35
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Edinburgh or Venice 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.