VacationSelector
The coloured houses stepping down to the sea, Positano
PositanoThe coloured houses stepping down to the sea
Camelback Mountain above the city, Scottsdale
ScottsdaleCamelback Mountain above the city

Photos: Positano by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Scottsdale by Visitor7, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Positano or Scottsdale?

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 Positano for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • getting around

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

Choose Scottsdale for

  • families
  • nightlife
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Scottsdale’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. Positano 77, Scottsdale 8: Positano leads by 69 points.
Food & drink. Positano 40, Scottsdale 46: Scottsdale leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Positano 22, Scottsdale 38: Scottsdale leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Positano 22, Scottsdale 52: Scottsdale leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Positano 80, Scottsdale 68: Positano leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Positano 88, Scottsdale 50: Positano leads by 38 points.
Good for families. Positano 28, Scottsdale 60: Scottsdale leads by 32 points.
Getting around. Positano 35, Scottsdale 20: Positano leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Positano 45, Scottsdale 60: Scottsdale leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Positano 10, Scottsdale 32: Scottsdale leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Positano 15, Scottsdale 40: Scottsdale leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Positano 45, Scottsdale 72: Scottsdale leads by 27 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Positano
42match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Scottsdale
Best match
46match

Wins on families and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Positano in July

29 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Scottsdale in July

41 °Cdaytime high
29 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
PositanoScottsdale

Where the figures come from

Positano's temperatures are measured 25 km from the centre, at Capri.

Positano 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.

Positano's sunshine is measured 59 km from the centre, at Grazzanise.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Positano: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Capri (25.3 km from centre). Scottsdale: 1991-2020 normals, Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport (13.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePositanoScottsdale
Official languageItalian-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-7
Emergency number112911
Elevation142 m380 m
Main airportNaples International Airport (NAP)33 km from centre131 non-stop destinationsPhoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)10 km from centre149 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasurePositanoScottsdale
City population3,729241,361
People per km²429-
Museums within 10 km1010
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km51
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Positano or Scottsdale 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). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.