VacationSelector
The domes and minarets of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, Abu Dhabi
Abu DhabiThe domes and minarets of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque
Big Ben and Westminster Bridge, London
LondonBig Ben and Westminster Bridge

Photos: Abu Dhabi by Jeffry Surianto, Pexels License; London by AXP Photography, Pexels License.

Abu Dhabi or London?

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
  • prices
  • wellness

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

Choose London for

  • live music and the arts
  • getting around
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on London’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, London 25: Abu Dhabi leads by 53 points.
Food & drink. Abu Dhabi 55, London 84: London leads by 29 points.
Culture & sights. Abu Dhabi 64, London 94: London leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Abu Dhabi 34, London 88: London leads by 54 points.
Nature & outdoors. Abu Dhabi 28, London 57: London leads by 29 points.
Day trips. Abu Dhabi 45, London 90: London leads by 45 points.
Good for families. Abu Dhabi and London are level on 82.
Getting around. Abu Dhabi 24, London 85: London leads by 61 points.
Shopping & style. Abu Dhabi 50, London 95: London leads by 45 points.
Affordability. Abu Dhabi 38, London 15: Abu Dhabi leads by 23 points.
Live music & performing arts. Abu Dhabi 32, London 98: London leads by 66 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Abu Dhabi 46, London 40: Abu Dhabi leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Abu Dhabi and London.

Your match

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

Abu Dhabi
48match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

London
Best match
71match

Wins on live music and the arts and getting around 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

London in July

23 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
Abu DhabiLondon

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). London: 1992-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, London Weather Centre (1.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAbu DhabiLondon
Official languageArabicEnglish
CurrencyUAE Dirham (AED)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsCG220 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+4UTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112 or 999
Elevation14 m4 m
Main airportZayed International Airport (AUH)26 km from centre147 non-stop destinationsLondon Heathrow Airport (LHR)23 km from centre224 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-8 days

By the numbers

MeasureAbu DhabiLondon
City population1,570,0008,799,728
People per km²1,6155,598
Museums within 10 km3216
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km04
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 London 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.