VacationSelector
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens
The Hofburg and Heldenplatz, Vienna
ViennaThe Hofburg and Heldenplatz

Photos: Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Vienna by C.Stadler/Bwag, CC BY-SA 3.0 AT, cropped.

Edinburgh or Vienna?

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
  • day trips

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

Choose Vienna for

  • live music and the arts
  • wellness
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Vienna’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, Vienna 27: Vienna leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Edinburgh 53, Vienna 68: Vienna leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Edinburgh 75, Vienna 89: Vienna leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Edinburgh and Vienna are level on 50.
Nature & outdoors. Edinburgh 75, Vienna 62: Edinburgh leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Edinburgh 75, Vienna 74: Edinburgh leads by 1 points.
Good for families. Edinburgh 62, Vienna 77: Vienna leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Edinburgh 74, Vienna 90: Vienna leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Edinburgh 50, Vienna 62: Vienna leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Edinburgh 30, Vienna 44: Vienna leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Edinburgh 72, Vienna 96: Vienna leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Edinburgh 34, Vienna 58: Vienna leads by 24 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Edinburgh and Vienna.

Your match

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

Edinburgh
56match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and day trips with your weighting.

Vienna
Best match
66match

Wins on live music and the arts and wellness 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

Vienna in July

27 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
78 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
EdinburghVienna

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). Vienna: 1991-2020 normals, Wien / Hohe Warte (4.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEdinburghVienna
Official languageEnglishGerman, Austrian Sign Language
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999112
Elevation47 m151 m
Main airportEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinationsVienna International Airport (VIE)18 km from centre202 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureEdinburghVienna
City population488,0502,028,289
People per km²1,8844,890
Museums within 10 km32152
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km33
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

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