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 pink Don CeSar hotel seen from the beach, St. Pete Beach
St. Pete BeachThe pink Don CeSar hotel seen from the beach

Photos: Abu Dhabi by Jeffry Surianto, Pexels License; St. Pete Beach by Jeffrey Eisen, Pexels License.

Abu Dhabi or St. Pete 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
  • shopping
  • food and drink

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

Choose St. Pete Beach for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on St. Pete 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, St. Pete Beach 87: St. Pete Beach leads by 9 points.
Food & drink. Abu Dhabi 55, St. Pete Beach 40: Abu Dhabi leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Abu Dhabi 64, St. Pete Beach 18: Abu Dhabi leads by 46 points.
Nightlife. Abu Dhabi 34, St. Pete Beach 28: Abu Dhabi leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Abu Dhabi 28, St. Pete Beach 57: St. Pete Beach leads by 29 points.
Day trips. Abu Dhabi 45, St. Pete Beach 58: St. Pete Beach leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Abu Dhabi 82, St. Pete Beach 72: Abu Dhabi leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Abu Dhabi 24, St. Pete Beach 30: St. Pete Beach leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Abu Dhabi 50, St. Pete Beach 20: Abu Dhabi leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Abu Dhabi 38, St. Pete Beach 32: Abu Dhabi leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Abu Dhabi 32, St. Pete Beach 20: Abu Dhabi leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Abu Dhabi 46, St. Pete Beach 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 St. Pete Beach.

Your match

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

Abu Dhabi
Best match
48match

Wins on culture and sights and shopping with your weighting.

St. Pete Beach
42match

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

St. Pete Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
185 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Abu DhabiSt. Pete 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.

St. Pete Beach 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.

St. Pete Beach's sunshine is measured 34 km from the centre, at Tampa International 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). St. Pete Beach: 1998-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Saint Petersburg (12.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAbu DhabiSt. Pete Beach
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 m2 m
Main airportZayed International Airport (AUH)26 km from centre147 non-stop destinationsSt. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport (PIE)21 km from centre60 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAbu DhabiSt. Pete Beach
City population1,570,0008,879
People per km²1,615173
Museums within 10 km32
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C11 months8 months

Where else could you go?

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