VacationSelector
The Assembly Hall on Temple Square, Salt Lake City
Salt Lake CityThe Assembly Hall on Temple Square
The Opera House from the water, Sydney
SydneyThe Opera House from the water

Photos: Salt Lake City by hakkun, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Sydney by Bernard Spragg, CC0.

Salt Lake City 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 Salt Lake City for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Salt Lake City’s own page.

Choose Sydney for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • getting around

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. Salt Lake City 12, Sydney 95: Sydney leads by 83 points.
Food & drink. Salt Lake City 40, Sydney 77: Sydney leads by 37 points.
Culture & sights. Salt Lake City 42, Sydney 60: Sydney leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Salt Lake City 30, Sydney 60: Sydney leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Salt Lake City 90, Sydney 85: Salt Lake City leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Salt Lake City 34, Sydney 50: Sydney leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Salt Lake City 72, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Salt Lake City 42, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 33 points.
Shopping & style. Salt Lake City 36, Sydney 68: Sydney leads by 32 points.
Affordability. Salt Lake City 40, Sydney 22: Salt Lake City leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Salt Lake City 55, Sydney 73: Sydney leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Salt Lake City 38, Sydney 55: Sydney leads by 17 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Salt Lake City and Sydney.

Your match

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

Salt Lake City
44match

Wins on prices and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Sydney
Best match
66match

Wins on beaches and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Salt Lake City in July

34 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 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°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Salt Lake CitySydney

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Salt Lake City: 1991-2020 normals, Salt Lake City International Airport (7.9 km from centre). Sydney: 1991-2020 normals, Sydney Airport (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSalt Lake CitySydney
Official language-English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC+10, UTC+11 in summer
Emergency number911000
Elevation1,288 m6 m
Main airportSalt Lake City International Airport (SLC)9 km from centre108 non-stop destinationsSydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD)9 km from centre99 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSalt Lake CitySydney
City population199,7235,450,496
People per km²690449
Museums within 10 km1238
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
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 Salt Lake City 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.