VacationSelector
The Opera House from the water, Sydney
SydneyThe Opera House from the water
The Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal, Venice
VeniceThe Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal

Photos: Sydney by Bernard Spragg, CC0; Venice by David Vives, Pexels License.

Sydney or Venice?

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 Sydney for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • nightlife

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

Choose Venice for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Venice’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. Sydney 95, Venice 56: Sydney leads by 39 points.
Food & drink. Sydney 77, Venice 60: Sydney leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Sydney 60, Venice 94: Venice leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. Sydney 60, Venice 27: Sydney leads by 33 points.
Nature & outdoors. Sydney 85, Venice 45: Sydney leads by 40 points.
Day trips. Sydney 50, Venice 86: Venice leads by 36 points.
Good for families. Sydney 75, Venice 45: Sydney leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Sydney 75, Venice 68: Sydney leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Sydney 68, Venice 57: Sydney leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Sydney 22, Venice 20: Sydney leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Sydney 73, Venice 62: Sydney leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Sydney 55, Venice 40: Sydney leads by 15 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Sydney
Best match
66match

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

Venice
55match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Venice in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
61 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
SydneyVenice

Where the figures come from

Venice 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.

Venice's sunshine is measured 26 km from the centre, at Treviso / S. Angelo.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Sydney: 1991-2020 normals, Sydney Airport (3.7 km from centre). Venice: 1991-2020 normals, Venezia / Tessera (6.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSydneyVenice
Official languageEnglishItalian
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10, UTC+11 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number000112
Elevation6 m2 m
Main airportSydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD)9 km from centre99 non-stop destinationsVenice Marco Polo Airport (VCE)7 km from centre103 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSydneyVenice
City population5,450,496250,369
People per km²449602
Museums within 10 km3852
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km25
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Sydney or Venice 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.