VacationSelector
The Old Town Clock on Citadel Hill, Halifax
HalifaxThe Old Town Clock on Citadel Hill
York Minster from the city walls, York
YorkYork Minster from the city walls

Photos: Halifax by Danieljmacdonald, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; York by PAUL FARMER, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Halifax or York?

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 Halifax for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

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

Choose York for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on York’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. Halifax 32, York 14: Halifax leads by 18 points.
Food & drink. Halifax 50, York 42: Halifax leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Halifax 42, York 70: York leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Halifax 46, York 36: Halifax leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Halifax and York are level on 62.
Day trips. Halifax 63, York 80: York leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Halifax 55, York 60: York leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Halifax 48, York 72: York leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Halifax 35, York 46: York leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Halifax and York are level on 38.
Live music & performing arts. Halifax 46, York 38: Halifax leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Halifax 28, York 34: York leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Halifax and York.

Your match

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

Halifax
45match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

York
Best match
49match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Halifax in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
101 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
14 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

York in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
HalifaxYork

Where the figures come from

York 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.

York's sunshine is measured 48 km from the centre, at Leeming.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Halifax: 1991-2020 normals, Shearwater Airport (6 km from centre). York: 1991-2020 normals, Linton-On-Ouse (14.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHalifaxYork
Official languageFrench, EnglishEnglish
CurrencyCanadian Dollar (CAD)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-4, UTC-3 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number911112 or 999
Elevation28 m25 m
Main airportHalifax / Stanfield International Airport (YHZ)26 km from centre40 non-stop destinationsLeeds Bradford Airport (LBA)39 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureHalifaxYork
City population440,072208,400
People per km²80766
Museums within 10 km1524
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

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