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 colonnaded court of Luxor Temple, Luxor
LuxorThe colonnaded court of Luxor Temple

Photos: Abu Dhabi by Jeffry Surianto, Pexels License; Luxor by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Abu Dhabi or Luxor?

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
  • food and drink

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

Choose Luxor for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Luxor’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, Luxor 6: Abu Dhabi leads by 72 points.
Food & drink. Abu Dhabi 55, Luxor 30: Abu Dhabi leads by 25 points.
Culture & sights. Abu Dhabi 64, Luxor 95: Luxor leads by 31 points.
Nightlife. Abu Dhabi 34, Luxor 10: Abu Dhabi leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Abu Dhabi 28, Luxor 32: Luxor leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Abu Dhabi 45, Luxor 62: Luxor leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Abu Dhabi 82, Luxor 30: Abu Dhabi leads by 52 points.
Getting around. Abu Dhabi 24, Luxor 35: Luxor leads by 11 points.
Shopping & style. Abu Dhabi 50, Luxor 25: Abu Dhabi leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Abu Dhabi 38, Luxor 90: Luxor leads by 52 points.
Live music & performing arts. Abu Dhabi 32, Luxor 10: Abu Dhabi leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Abu Dhabi 46, Luxor 28: Abu Dhabi leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Abu Dhabi and Luxor.

Your match

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

Abu Dhabi
Best match
48match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Luxor
38match

Wins on prices 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.

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

Luxor in July

41 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
0 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

051015JFMAMJJASOND
Abu DhabiLuxor

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.

Luxor 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). Luxor: 1998-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Luxor (6.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAbu DhabiLuxor
Official languageArabicArabic
CurrencyUAE Dirham (AED)Egyptian Pound (EGP)
SocketsCG220 V, 50 HzCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+4UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number112Police 122, ambulance 123, fire 180
Elevation14 m89 m
Main airportZayed International Airport (AUH)26 km from centre147 non-stop destinationsLuxor International Airport (LXR)7 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-15 days

By the numbers

MeasureAbu DhabiLuxor
City population1,570,000202,232
People per km²1,615486
Museums within 10 km34
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Luxor 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). 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.