VacationSelector
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens
The US Capitol, Washington DC
Washington DCThe US Capitol

Photos: Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Washington DC by Guohua Song, Pexels License.

Edinburgh or Washington DC?

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
  • beaches
  • wellness

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

Choose Washington DC for

  • food and drink
  • families
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Washington DC’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, Washington DC 12: Edinburgh leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Edinburgh 53, Washington DC 67: Washington DC leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Edinburgh 75, Washington DC 84: Washington DC leads by 9 points.
Nightlife. Edinburgh 50, Washington DC 57: Washington DC leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Edinburgh 75, Washington DC 64: Edinburgh leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Edinburgh 75, Washington DC 73: Edinburgh leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Edinburgh 62, Washington DC 73: Washington DC leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Edinburgh 74, Washington DC 72: Edinburgh leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Edinburgh 50, Washington DC 52: Washington DC leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Edinburgh 30, Washington DC 28: Edinburgh leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Edinburgh 72, Washington DC 67: Edinburgh leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Edinburgh 34, Washington DC 26: Edinburgh leads by 8 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Edinburgh
56match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and beaches with your weighting.

Washington DC
56match

Wins on food and drink 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

Washington DC in July

32 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
108 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
EdinburghWashington DC

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). Washington DC: 1991-2020 normals, Washington National Airport (5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEdinburghWashington DC
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 m72 m
Main airportEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinationsRonald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA)5 km from centre105 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureEdinburghWashington DC
City population488,050689,545
People per km²1,8843,896
Museums within 10 km3298
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Edinburgh or Washington DC 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.