VacationSelector
The domes and minarets of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, Abu Dhabi
Abu DhabiThe domes and minarets of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque
The Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign, Las Vegas
Las VegasThe Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign

Photos: Abu Dhabi by Jeffry Surianto, Pexels License; Las Vegas by Christian David, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Abu Dhabi or Las Vegas?

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 Abu Dhabi for

  • beaches
  • families
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Las Vegas for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Las Vegas’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. Abu Dhabi 78, Las Vegas 10: Abu Dhabi leads by 68 points.
Food & drink. Abu Dhabi 55, Las Vegas 68: Las Vegas leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Abu Dhabi 64, Las Vegas 25: Abu Dhabi leads by 39 points.
Nightlife. Abu Dhabi 34, Las Vegas 88: Las Vegas leads by 54 points.
Nature & outdoors. Abu Dhabi 28, Las Vegas 68: Las Vegas leads by 40 points.
Day trips. Abu Dhabi 45, Las Vegas 25: Abu Dhabi leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Abu Dhabi 82, Las Vegas 25: Abu Dhabi leads by 57 points.
Getting around. Abu Dhabi 24, Las Vegas 38: Las Vegas leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Abu Dhabi 50, Las Vegas 64: Las Vegas leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Abu Dhabi 38, Las Vegas 35: Abu Dhabi leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Abu Dhabi 32, Las Vegas 78: Las Vegas leads by 46 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Abu Dhabi 46, Las Vegas 40: Abu Dhabi leads by 6 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Abu Dhabi and Las Vegas.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Abu Dhabi
48match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Las Vegas
47match

Wins on nightlife and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Abu Dhabi in July

43 °Cdaytime high
30 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
33 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Las Vegas in July

40 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0510152025JFMAMJJASOND
Abu DhabiLas Vegas

Where the figures come from

Abu Dhabi's temperatures are measured 26 km from the centre, at Abu Dhabi International Airport.

Abu Dhabi 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Abu Dhabi: 1991-2020 normals, Abu Dhabi International Airport (25.7 km from centre). Las Vegas: 1991-2020 normals, McCarran International Airport (8.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAbu DhabiLas Vegas
Official languageArabic-
CurrencyUAE Dirham (AED)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCG220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+4UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation14 m610 m
Main airportZayed International Airport (AUH)26 km from centre147 non-stop destinationsHarry Reid International Airport (LAS)4 km from centre159 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAbu DhabiLas Vegas
City population1,570,000641,903
People per km²1,6151,843
Museums within 10 km321
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C11 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Abu Dhabi or Las Vegas 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.