VacationSelector
The Blue Mosque, Istanbul
IstanbulThe Blue Mosque
Bell Rock outside Sedona, Sedona
SedonaBell Rock outside Sedona

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

Istanbul or Sedona?

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

  • culture and sights
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

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

Choose Sedona for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Sedona’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, Sedona 16: Istanbul leads by 29 points.
Food & drink. Istanbul 87, Sedona 33: Istanbul leads by 54 points.
Culture & sights. Istanbul 90, Sedona 20: Istanbul leads by 70 points.
Nightlife. Istanbul 77, Sedona 8: Istanbul leads by 69 points.
Nature & outdoors. Istanbul 52, Sedona 93: Sedona leads by 41 points.
Day trips. Istanbul and Sedona are level on 55.
Good for families. Istanbul 55, Sedona 42: Istanbul leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Istanbul 62, Sedona 22: Istanbul leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Istanbul 86, Sedona 34: Istanbul leads by 52 points.
Affordability. Istanbul 60, Sedona 18: Istanbul leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Istanbul 62, Sedona 13: Istanbul leads by 49 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Istanbul 75, Sedona 82: Sedona leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Istanbul and Sedona.

Your match

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

Istanbul
Best match
67match

Wins on culture and sights and nightlife with your weighting.

Sedona
36match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and wellness 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

Sedona in July

34 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
51 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
IstanbulSedona

Where the figures come from

Sedona's station stands 153 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Sedona 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). Sedona: 2009-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sedona / West Sedona (1.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureIstanbulSedona
Official languageTurkish-
CurrencyTurkish Lira (TRY)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC-7
Emergency number112911
Elevation100 m1,319 m
Main airportİstanbul Airport (IST)36 km from centre343 non-stop destinationsPhoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)160 km from centre148 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureIstanbulSedona
City population15,655,9249,684
People per km²2,930195
Museums within 10 km730
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months-

Where else could you go?

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