VacationSelector
Galway Cathedral from the River Corrib, Galway
GalwayGalway Cathedral from the River Corrib
The Opera House from the water, Sydney
SydneyThe Opera House from the water

Photos: Galway by Dieglop, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Sydney by Bernard Spragg, CC0.

Galway or Sydney?

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 Galway for

  • day trips
  • prices

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

Choose Sydney for

  • beaches
  • families
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Sydney’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. Galway 28, Sydney 95: Sydney leads by 67 points.
Food & drink. Galway 45, Sydney 77: Sydney leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Galway 33, Sydney 60: Sydney leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Galway 50, Sydney 60: Sydney leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Galway 78, Sydney 85: Sydney leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Galway 56, Sydney 50: Galway leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Galway 42, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 33 points.
Getting around. Galway 58, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Galway 38, Sydney 68: Sydney leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Galway 28, Sydney 22: Galway leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Galway 57, Sydney 73: Sydney leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Galway 28, Sydney 55: Sydney leads by 27 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Galway and Sydney.

Your match

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

Galway
45match

Wins on day trips and prices with your weighting.

Sydney
Best match
66match

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.

Galway in July

20 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Sydney in July

18 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
70 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
19 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
GalwaySydney

Where the figures come from

Galway's temperatures are measured 64 km from the centre, at Shannon Airport.

Galway 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Galway: 1991-2020 normals, Shannon Airport (64.2 km from centre). Sydney: 1991-2020 normals, Sydney Airport (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGalwaySydney
Official languageEnglish, IrishEnglish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+10, UTC+11 in summer
Emergency number112000
Elevation25 m6 m
Main airportShannon Airport (SNN)64 km from centre39 non-stop destinationsSydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD)9 km from centre99 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureGalwaySydney
City population83,4565,450,496
People per km²1,563449
Museums within 10 km438
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Galway or Sydney 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.