VacationSelector
The old town below the fortress, Salzburg
SalzburgThe old town below the fortress
York Minster from the city walls, York
YorkYork Minster from the city walls

Photos: Salzburg by Leonhard Niederwimmer, Pexels License; York by PAUL FARMER, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Salzburg or York?

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 Salzburg for

  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

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

Choose York for

  • nightlife
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on York’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. Salzburg 35, York 14: Salzburg leads by 21 points.
Food & drink. Salzburg 45, York 42: Salzburg leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Salzburg 72, York 70: Salzburg leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Salzburg 25, York 36: York leads by 11 points.
Nature & outdoors. Salzburg 86, York 62: Salzburg leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Salzburg and York are level on 80.
Good for families. Salzburg 65, York 60: Salzburg leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Salzburg and York are level on 72.
Shopping & style. Salzburg 48, York 46: Salzburg leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Salzburg 32, York 38: York leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Salzburg 80, York 38: Salzburg leads by 42 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Salzburg 55, York 34: Salzburg leads by 21 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Salzburg and York.

Your match

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

Salzburg
Best match
58match

Wins on live music and the arts and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

York
49match

Wins on nightlife and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Salzburg in July

25 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
159 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
16 hdaylight a day

York in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
SalzburgYork

Where the figures come from

York 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.

York's sunshine is measured 48 km from the centre, at Leeming.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Salzburg: 1991-2020 normals, Salzburg (3.4 km from centre). York: 1991-2020 normals, Linton-On-Ouse (14.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSalzburgYork
Official languageGerman, Austrian Sign LanguageEnglish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112 or 999
Elevation424 m25 m
Main airportSalzburg Airport (SZG)3 km from centre64 non-stop destinationsLeeds Bradford Airport (LBA)39 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureSalzburgYork
City population155,021208,400
People per km²2,360766
Museums within 10 km3824
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km32

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Salzburg or York 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). 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.