VacationSelector
The Red Tower and the harbour, Alanya
AlanyaThe Red Tower and the harbour
The Burj Al Arab, Dubai
DubaiThe Burj Al Arab

Photos: Alanya by Atlantic Ambience, Pexels License; Dubai by Aleksandar Pasaric, Pexels License.

Alanya or Dubai?

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 Alanya for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices
  • day trips

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

Choose Dubai for

  • shopping
  • food and drink
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Dubai’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. Alanya 84, Dubai 80: Alanya leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Alanya 43, Dubai 76: Dubai leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. Alanya 44, Dubai 40: Alanya leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Alanya 58, Dubai 62: Dubai leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Alanya 68, Dubai 25: Alanya leads by 43 points.
Day trips. Alanya 62, Dubai 45: Alanya leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Alanya 70, Dubai 82: Dubai leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Alanya 50, Dubai 42: Alanya leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Alanya 34, Dubai 82: Dubai leads by 48 points.
Affordability. Alanya 65, Dubai 32: Alanya leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Alanya 15, Dubai 40: Dubai leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Alanya 56, Dubai 46: Alanya leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Alanya and Dubai.

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

Alanya
54match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and prices with your weighting.

Dubai
54match

Wins on shopping and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Alanya in July

32 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
3 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Dubai in July

42 °Cdaytime high
33 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
33 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
AlanyaDubai

Where the figures come from

Alanya has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Alanya: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Dubai: 1991-2020 normals, Dubai International Airport (3.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAlanyaDubai
Official languageTurkishArabic
CurrencyTurkish Lira (TRY)UAE Dirham (AED)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCG220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+4
Emergency number112112
Elevation10 m0 m
Main airportGazipaşa-Alanya Airport (GZP)38 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsDubai International Airport (DXB)7 km from centre294 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days-

By the numbers

MeasureAlanyaDubai
City population364,1803,944,751
People per km²228-
Museums within 10 km214
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C7 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Alanya or Dubai somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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.