VacationSelector
The domes and minarets of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, Abu Dhabi
Abu DhabiThe domes and minarets of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque
Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan, New York
New YorkBrooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan

Photos: Abu Dhabi by Jeffry Surianto, Pexels License; New York by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Abu Dhabi or New York?

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
  • families

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

Choose New York for

  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on New York’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, New York 50: Abu Dhabi leads by 28 points.
Food & drink. Abu Dhabi 55, New York 92: New York leads by 37 points.
Culture & sights. Abu Dhabi 64, New York 89: New York leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Abu Dhabi 34, New York 97: New York leads by 63 points.
Nature & outdoors. Abu Dhabi 28, New York 55: New York leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Abu Dhabi 45, New York 68: New York leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Abu Dhabi 82, New York 70: Abu Dhabi leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Abu Dhabi 24, New York 82: New York leads by 58 points.
Shopping & style. Abu Dhabi 50, New York 97: New York leads by 47 points.
Affordability. Abu Dhabi 38, New York 12: Abu Dhabi leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. Abu Dhabi 32, New York 99: New York leads by 67 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Abu Dhabi 46, New York 42: Abu Dhabi leads by 4 points.
0255075100

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

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.

New York
Best match
71match

Wins on live music and the arts and nightlife 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

New York in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
107 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
22 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Abu DhabiNew York

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). New York: 1991-2020 normals, LaGuardia Airport (12.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAbu DhabiNew York
Official languageArabic-
CurrencyUAE Dirham (AED)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCG220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+4UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation14 m25 m
Main airportZayed International Airport (AUH)26 km from centre147 non-stop destinationsJohn F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)21 km from centre189 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAbu DhabiNew York
City population1,570,0008,804,190
People per km²1,6157,256
Museums within 10 km3157
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C11 months3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Abu Dhabi or New York 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.