VacationSelector
The Blue Mosque, Istanbul
IstanbulThe Blue Mosque
The Three Graces at Pier Head, Liverpool
LiverpoolThe Three Graces at Pier Head

Photos: Istanbul by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Liverpool by Marathon, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Istanbul or Liverpool?

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 Istanbul for

  • wellness
  • food and drink
  • shopping

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

Choose Liverpool for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Liverpool’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. Istanbul 45, Liverpool 22: Istanbul leads by 23 points.
Food & drink. Istanbul 87, Liverpool 48: Istanbul leads by 39 points.
Culture & sights. Istanbul 90, Liverpool 64: Istanbul leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Istanbul 77, Liverpool 66: Istanbul leads by 11 points.
Nature & outdoors. Istanbul and Liverpool are level on 52.
Day trips. Istanbul 55, Liverpool 64: Liverpool leads by 9 points.
Good for families. Istanbul and Liverpool are level on 55.
Getting around. Istanbul 62, Liverpool 68: Liverpool leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Istanbul 86, Liverpool 52: Istanbul leads by 34 points.
Affordability. Istanbul 60, Liverpool 50: Istanbul leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Istanbul 62, Liverpool 66: Liverpool leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Istanbul 75, Liverpool 22: Istanbul leads by 53 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Istanbul and Liverpool.

Your match

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

Istanbul
Best match
67match

Wins on wellness and food and drink with your weighting.

Liverpool
52match

Wins on day trips 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.

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

Liverpool in July

21 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
67 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
IstanbulLiverpool

Where the figures come from

Liverpool's temperatures are measured 47 km from the centre, at Manchester Airport.

Liverpool 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. Istanbul: 1991-2020 normals, Istanbul / Goztepe (9.9 km from centre). Liverpool: 1991-2020 normals, Manchester Airport (47.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureIstanbulLiverpool
Official languageTurkishEnglish
CurrencyTurkish Lira (TRY)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+3UTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112 or 999
Elevation100 m70 m
Main airportİstanbul Airport (IST)36 km from centre343 non-stop destinationsLiverpool John Lennon Airport (LPL)12 km from centre75 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureIstanbulLiverpool
City population15,655,924513,441
People per km²2,9304,592
Museums within 10 km7331
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Istanbul or Liverpool 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). 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.