VacationSelector
The domes and minarets of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, Abu Dhabi
Abu DhabiThe domes and minarets of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque
Waterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor, Newport Beach
Newport BeachWaterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor

Photos: Abu Dhabi by Jeffry Surianto, Pexels License; Newport Beach by Don Ramey Logan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Abu Dhabi or Newport Beach?

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
  • prices
  • beaches

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

Choose Newport Beach for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Newport Beach’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, Newport Beach 70: Abu Dhabi leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Abu Dhabi 55, Newport Beach 50: Abu Dhabi leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Abu Dhabi 64, Newport Beach 20: Abu Dhabi leads by 44 points.
Nightlife. Abu Dhabi 34, Newport Beach 33: Abu Dhabi leads by 1 points.
Nature & outdoors. Abu Dhabi 28, Newport Beach 66: Newport Beach leads by 38 points.
Day trips. Abu Dhabi 45, Newport Beach 70: Newport Beach leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Abu Dhabi 82, Newport Beach 80: Abu Dhabi leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Abu Dhabi 24, Newport Beach 20: Abu Dhabi leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Abu Dhabi 50, Newport Beach 62: Newport Beach leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Abu Dhabi 38, Newport Beach 15: Abu Dhabi leads by 23 points.
Live music & performing arts. Abu Dhabi 32, Newport Beach 46: Newport Beach leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Abu Dhabi 46, Newport Beach 44: Abu Dhabi leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Abu Dhabi and Newport Beach.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Abu Dhabi
48match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

Newport Beach
48match

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

Newport Beach in July

26 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
Abu DhabiNewport Beach

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). Newport Beach: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1981-2010) normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (7.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAbu DhabiNewport Beach
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 m3 m
Main airportZayed International Airport (AUH)26 km from centre147 non-stop destinationsJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)7 km from centre53 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAbu DhabiNewport Beach
City population1,570,00085,239
People per km²1,615622
Museums within 10 km34
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C11 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Abu Dhabi or Newport Beach 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.