VacationSelector
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow
GlasgowKelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum
The Blue Mosque, Istanbul
IstanbulThe Blue Mosque

Photos: Glasgow by Stinglehammer, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Istanbul by AXP Photography, Pexels License.

Glasgow or Istanbul?

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 Glasgow for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Istanbul for

  • wellness
  • food and drink
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Istanbul’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. Glasgow 14, Istanbul 45: Istanbul leads by 31 points.
Food & drink. Glasgow 52, Istanbul 87: Istanbul leads by 35 points.
Culture & sights. Glasgow 62, Istanbul 90: Istanbul leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Glasgow 66, Istanbul 77: Istanbul leads by 11 points.
Nature & outdoors. Glasgow 75, Istanbul 52: Glasgow leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Glasgow 76, Istanbul 55: Glasgow leads by 21 points.
Good for families. Glasgow 58, Istanbul 55: Glasgow leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Glasgow 66, Istanbul 62: Glasgow leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Glasgow 64, Istanbul 86: Istanbul leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Glasgow 46, Istanbul 60: Istanbul leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Glasgow 72, Istanbul 62: Glasgow leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Glasgow 28, Istanbul 75: Istanbul leads by 47 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Glasgow and Istanbul.

Your match

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

Glasgow
57match

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

Istanbul
Best match
67match

Wins on wellness and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Glasgow in July

19 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
85 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
15 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Istanbul in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
GlasgowIstanbul

Where the figures come from

Glasgow 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.

Glasgow's sunshine is measured 90 km from the centre, at Eskdalemuir.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Glasgow: 1991-2020 normals, Glasgow Airport (11.5 km from centre). Istanbul: 1991-2020 normals, Istanbul / Goztepe (9.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGlasgowIstanbul
Official languageEnglishTurkish
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Turkish Lira (TRY)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+3
Emergency number112 or 999112
Elevation21 m100 m
Main airportGlasgow Airport (GLA)11 km from centre95 non-stop destinationsİstanbul Airport (IST)36 km from centre343 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureGlasgowIstanbul
City population626,41015,655,924
People per km²1902,930
Museums within 10 km2973
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
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 Glasgow or Istanbul somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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.