VacationSelector
The church of San Francisco under a blue sky, Quito
QuitoThe church of San Francisco under a blue sky
The Opera House from the water, Sydney
SydneyThe Opera House from the water

Photos: Quito by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Sydney by Bernard Spragg, CC0.

Quito or Sydney?

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 Quito for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose Sydney for

  • beaches
  • families
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Sydney’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. Quito 5, Sydney 95: Sydney leads by 90 points.
Food & drink. Quito 54, Sydney 77: Sydney leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Quito 77, Sydney 60: Quito leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Quito 40, Sydney 60: Sydney leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Quito 86, Sydney 85: Quito leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Quito 55, Sydney 50: Quito leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Quito 32, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 43 points.
Getting around. Quito 45, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Quito 40, Sydney 68: Sydney leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Quito 78, Sydney 22: Quito leads by 56 points.
Live music & performing arts. Quito 38, Sydney 73: Sydney leads by 35 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Quito 44, Sydney 55: Sydney leads by 11 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Quito and Sydney.

Your match

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

Quito
50match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Sydney
Best match
66match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Sydney in July

18 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
70 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
19 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
QuitoSydney

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. Quito: 1961-1990 normals, Izobamba-Santa Catalina (16.8 km from centre). Sydney: 1991-2020 normals, Sydney Airport (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureQuitoSydney
Official languageSpanish, Shuar, Northern QuichuaEnglish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+10, UTC+11 in summer
Emergency number911000
Elevation2,850 m6 m
Main airportMariscal Sucre International Airport (UIO)20 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsSydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD)9 km from centre99 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureQuitoSydney
City population1,763,2755,450,496
People per km²4,735449
Museums within 10 km1638
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Swim season, months above 21 °C-6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Quito or Sydney 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.