VacationSelector
Flinders Street Station, Melbourne
MelbourneFlinders Street Station
Painted colonial houses in the Pelourinho, Salvador
SalvadorPainted colonial houses in the Pelourinho

Photos: Melbourne by Medelam, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Salvador by Paul R. Burley, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Melbourne or Salvador?

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

  • getting around
  • families
  • shopping

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

Choose Salvador for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Salvador’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, Salvador 84: Salvador leads by 34 points.
Food & drink. Melbourne 75, Salvador 66: Melbourne leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Melbourne 57, Salvador 74: Salvador leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Melbourne 75, Salvador 70: Melbourne leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Melbourne 70, Salvador 52: Melbourne leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Melbourne 62, Salvador 56: Melbourne leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Melbourne 73, Salvador 42: Melbourne leads by 31 points.
Getting around. Melbourne 76, Salvador 42: Melbourne leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. Melbourne 70, Salvador 42: Melbourne leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Melbourne 31, Salvador 70: Salvador leads by 39 points.
Live music & performing arts. Melbourne 72, Salvador 63: Melbourne leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Melbourne 54, Salvador 32: Melbourne leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Melbourne and Salvador.

Your match

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

Melbourne
Best match
64match

Wins on getting around and families with your weighting.

Salvador
58match

Wins on prices and beaches 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

Salvador in July

27 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
201 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
MelbourneSalvador

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Melbourne: 1991-2020 normals, Latrobe University / Kingsbury (13.1 km from centre). Salvador: 1991-2020 normals, Salvador (4.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMelbourneSalvador
Official languageEnglishPortuguese
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10, UTC+11 in summerUTC-3
Emergency number000Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation31 m8 m
Main airportMelbourne Airport (MEL)19 km from centre69 non-stop destinationsDeputado Luiz Eduardo Magalhães International Airport (SSA)20 km from centre31 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureMelbourneSalvador
City population5,350,7052,417,678
People per km²5353,489
Museums within 10 km4349
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

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