VacationSelector
Stortorget in Gamla stan, Stockholm
StockholmStortorget in Gamla stan
The Opera House from the water, Sydney
SydneyThe Opera House from the water

Photos: Stockholm by Jorge Franganillo, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Sydney by Bernard Spragg, CC0.

Stockholm 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 Stockholm for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

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

Choose Sydney for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Stockholm 40, Sydney 95: Sydney leads by 55 points.
Food & drink. Stockholm 64, Sydney 77: Sydney leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Stockholm 77, Sydney 60: Stockholm leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Stockholm 57, Sydney 60: Sydney leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Stockholm 72, Sydney 85: Sydney leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Stockholm 68, Sydney 50: Stockholm leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Stockholm 82, Sydney 75: Stockholm leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Stockholm 84, Sydney 75: Stockholm leads by 9 points.
Shopping & style. Stockholm 70, Sydney 68: Stockholm leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Stockholm 30, Sydney 22: Stockholm leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Stockholm 65, Sydney 73: Sydney leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Stockholm 56, Sydney 55: Stockholm leads by 1 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Stockholm
64match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights with your weighting.

Sydney
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.

Stockholm in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
65 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
18 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

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
StockholmSydney

Where the figures come from

Stockholm 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.

Stockholm's sunshine is measured 26 km from the centre, at Stockholm Observatoriet.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Stockholm: 2003-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Stockholm Bromma Airport (7.1 km from centre). Sydney: 1991-2020 normals, Sydney Airport (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureStockholmSydney
Official languageSwedishEnglish
CurrencySwedish Krona (SEK)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+10, UTC+11 in summer
Emergency number112000
Elevation22 m6 m
Main airportStockholm-Arlanda Airport (ARN)36 km from centre174 non-stop destinationsSydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD)9 km from centre99 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureStockholmSydney
City population984,7485,450,496
People per km²5,260449
Museums within 10 km26638
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km32
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Stockholm or Sydney somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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). 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.