VacationSelector
Flinders Street Station, Melbourne
MelbourneFlinders Street Station
The city from Hallgrímskirkja, Reykjavik
ReykjavikThe city from Hallgrímskirkja

Photos: Melbourne by Medelam, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Reykjavik by Atlantic Ambience, Pexels License.

Melbourne or Reykjavik?

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

  • shopping
  • beaches
  • food and drink

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

Choose Reykjavik for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Reykjavik’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, Reykjavik 12: Melbourne leads by 38 points.
Food & drink. Melbourne 75, Reykjavik 42: Melbourne leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. Melbourne 57, Reykjavik 25: Melbourne leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Melbourne 75, Reykjavik 45: Melbourne leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Melbourne 70, Reykjavik 92: Reykjavik leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Melbourne 62, Reykjavik 35: Melbourne leads by 27 points.
Good for families. Melbourne 73, Reykjavik 55: Melbourne leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Melbourne 76, Reykjavik 55: Melbourne leads by 21 points.
Shopping & style. Melbourne 70, Reykjavik 25: Melbourne leads by 45 points.
Affordability. Melbourne 31, Reykjavik 6: Melbourne leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Melbourne 72, Reykjavik 45: Melbourne leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Melbourne 54, Reykjavik 88: Reykjavik leads by 34 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Melbourne and Reykjavik.

Your match

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

Melbourne
Best match
64match

Wins on shopping and beaches with your weighting.

Reykjavik
44match

Wins on wellness and nature and the outdoors 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

Reykjavik in July

15 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
50 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
11 °Csea
20 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
MelbourneReykjavik

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Melbourne: 1991-2020 normals, Latrobe University / Kingsbury (13.1 km from centre). Reykjavik: 1991-2020 normals, Reykjavik (2.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMelbourneReykjavik
Official languageEnglishIcelandic
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Iceland Krona (ISK)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10, UTC+11 in summerUTC
Emergency number000112
Elevation31 m8 m
Main airportMelbourne Airport (MEL)19 km from centre69 non-stop destinationsKeflavik International Airport (KEF)37 km from centre88 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureMelbourneReykjavik
City population5,350,705138,772
People per km²535569
Museums within 10 km4323
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

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