VacationSelector
Flinders Street Station, Melbourne
MelbourneFlinders Street Station
The church of San Francisco under a blue sky, Quito
QuitoThe church of San Francisco under a blue sky

Photos: Melbourne by Medelam, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Quito by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Melbourne or Quito?

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 Melbourne for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nightlife

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

Choose Quito for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Quito’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. Melbourne 50, Quito 5: Melbourne leads by 45 points.
Food & drink. Melbourne 75, Quito 54: Melbourne leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Melbourne 57, Quito 77: Quito leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Melbourne 75, Quito 40: Melbourne leads by 35 points.
Nature & outdoors. Melbourne 70, Quito 86: Quito leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Melbourne 62, Quito 55: Melbourne leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Melbourne 73, Quito 32: Melbourne leads by 41 points.
Getting around. Melbourne 76, Quito 45: Melbourne leads by 31 points.
Shopping & style. Melbourne 70, Quito 40: Melbourne leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Melbourne 31, Quito 78: Quito leads by 47 points.
Live music & performing arts. Melbourne 72, Quito 38: Melbourne leads by 34 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Melbourne 54, Quito 44: Melbourne leads by 10 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Melbourne
Best match
64match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Quito
50match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Melbourne in July

14 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Quito in July

18 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
MelbourneQuito

Where the figures come from

Quito's station stands 208 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Melbourne: 1991-2020 normals, Latrobe University / Kingsbury (13.1 km from centre). Quito: 1961-1990 normals, Izobamba-Santa Catalina (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMelbourneQuito
Official languageEnglishSpanish, Shuar, Northern Quichua
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10, UTC+11 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number000911
Elevation31 m2,850 m
Main airportMelbourne Airport (MEL)19 km from centre69 non-stop destinationsMariscal Sucre International Airport (UIO)20 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMelbourneQuito
City population5,350,7051,763,275
People per km²5354,735
Museums within 10 km4316
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

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