VacationSelector
Painted colonial houses in the Pelourinho, Salvador
SalvadorPainted colonial houses in the Pelourinho
The Opera House from the water, Sydney
SydneyThe Opera House from the water

Photos: Salvador by Paul R. Burley, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Sydney by Bernard Spragg, CC0.

Salvador 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 Salvador for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

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

Choose Sydney for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • 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. Salvador 84, Sydney 95: Sydney leads by 11 points.
Food & drink. Salvador 66, Sydney 77: Sydney leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Salvador 74, Sydney 60: Salvador leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Salvador 70, Sydney 60: Salvador leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Salvador 52, Sydney 85: Sydney leads by 33 points.
Day trips. Salvador 56, Sydney 50: Salvador leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Salvador 42, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 33 points.
Getting around. Salvador 42, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 33 points.
Shopping & style. Salvador 42, Sydney 68: Sydney leads by 26 points.
Affordability. Salvador 70, Sydney 22: Salvador leads by 48 points.
Live music & performing arts. Salvador 63, Sydney 73: Sydney leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Salvador 32, Sydney 55: Sydney leads by 23 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Salvador and Sydney.

Your match

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

Salvador
58match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Sydney
Best match
66match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

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

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

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
SalvadorSydney

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Salvador: 1991-2020 normals, Salvador (4.5 km from centre). Sydney: 1991-2020 normals, Sydney Airport (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSalvadorSydney
Official languagePortugueseEnglish
CurrencyBrazilian Real (BRL)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsCN60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-3UTC+10, UTC+11 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 190, ambulance 192, fire 193000
Elevation8 m6 m
Main airportDeputado Luiz Eduardo Magalhães International Airport (SSA)20 km from centre31 non-stop destinationsSydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD)9 km from centre99 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSalvadorSydney
City population2,417,6785,450,496
People per km²3,489449
Museums within 10 km4938
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months6 months

Where else could you go?

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