VacationSelector
The domes and minarets of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, Abu Dhabi
Abu DhabiThe domes and minarets of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque
Bougainvillea and the dome of Agia Napa Cathedral, Limassol
LimassolBougainvillea and the dome of Agia Napa Cathedral

Photos: Abu Dhabi by Jeffry Surianto, Pexels License; Limassol by Julian Lupyan, CC0.

Abu Dhabi or Limassol?

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

  • culture and sights
  • families
  • shopping

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

Choose Limassol for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Limassol’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, Limassol 77: Abu Dhabi leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Abu Dhabi 55, Limassol 58: Limassol leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Abu Dhabi 64, Limassol 38: Abu Dhabi leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Abu Dhabi 34, Limassol 50: Limassol leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Abu Dhabi 28, Limassol 65: Limassol leads by 37 points.
Day trips. Abu Dhabi 45, Limassol 76: Limassol leads by 31 points.
Good for families. Abu Dhabi 82, Limassol 63: Abu Dhabi leads by 19 points.
Getting around. Abu Dhabi 24, Limassol 38: Limassol leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Abu Dhabi 50, Limassol 42: Abu Dhabi leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Abu Dhabi 38, Limassol 44: Limassol leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Abu Dhabi and Limassol are level on 32.
Wellness & relaxation. Abu Dhabi 46, Limassol 42: Abu Dhabi leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Abu Dhabi and Limassol.

Your match

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

Abu Dhabi
48match

Wins on culture and sights and families with your weighting.

Limassol
Best match
52match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and day trips 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

Limassol in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
13 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
Abu DhabiLimassol

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.

Limassol 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.

Limassol's sunshine is measured 59 km from the centre, at Larnaca Airport.

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). Limassol: 1998-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Akrotiri (11.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAbu DhabiLimassol
Official languageArabicTurkish, Greek, Modern Greek
CurrencyUAE Dirham (AED)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCG220 V, 50 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+4UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation14 m10 m
Main airportZayed International Airport (AUH)26 km from centre147 non-stop destinationsLarnaca International Airport (LCA)58 km from centre112 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-17 days

By the numbers

MeasureAbu DhabiLimassol
City population1,570,000107,970
People per km²1,6152,405
Museums within 10 km32
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km03
Swim season, months above 21 °C11 months6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Abu Dhabi or Limassol 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.