VacationSelector
Flinders Street Station, Melbourne
MelbourneFlinders Street Station
Gastown, Vancouver
VancouverGastown

Photos: Melbourne by Medelam, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Vancouver by Xicotencatl, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Melbourne or Vancouver?

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

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

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

Choose Vancouver for

  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Vancouver’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, Vancouver 42: Melbourne leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Melbourne 75, Vancouver 72: Melbourne leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Melbourne 57, Vancouver 42: Melbourne leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Melbourne 75, Vancouver 42: Melbourne leads by 33 points.
Nature & outdoors. Melbourne 70, Vancouver 97: Vancouver leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Melbourne 62, Vancouver 45: Melbourne leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Melbourne 73, Vancouver 72: Melbourne leads by 1 points.
Getting around. Melbourne 76, Vancouver 73: Melbourne leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Melbourne 70, Vancouver 55: Melbourne leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Melbourne 31, Vancouver 27: Melbourne leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Melbourne 72, Vancouver 52: Melbourne leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Melbourne 54, Vancouver 50: Melbourne leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Melbourne and Vancouver.

Your match

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

Melbourne
Best match
64match

Wins on nightlife and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Vancouver
56match

Wins on 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

Vancouver in July

23 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
42 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
MelbourneVancouver

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Melbourne: 1991-2020 normals, Latrobe University / Kingsbury (13.1 km from centre). Vancouver: 1991-2020 normals, Vancouver Harbour CS (4.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMelbourneVancouver
Official languageEnglishFrench, English
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10, UTC+11 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number000911
Elevation31 m2 m
Main airportMelbourne Airport (MEL)19 km from centre69 non-stop destinationsVancouver International Airport (YVR)9 km from centre109 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMelbourneVancouver
City population5,350,705662,248
People per km²5355,759
Museums within 10 km4326
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Vancouver 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.