VacationSelector
The Umayyad Palace on the Amman Citadel, Amman
AmmanThe Umayyad Palace on the Amman Citadel
The Burj Al Arab, Dubai
DubaiThe Burj Al Arab

Photos: Amman by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Dubai by Aleksandar Pasaric, Pexels License.

Amman 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 Amman for

  • day trips
  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Dubai for

  • beaches
  • families
  • shopping

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. Amman 22, Dubai 80: Dubai leads by 58 points.
Food & drink. Amman 62, Dubai 76: Dubai leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Amman 54, Dubai 40: Amman leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Amman 32, Dubai 62: Dubai leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Amman 45, Dubai 25: Amman leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Amman 80, Dubai 45: Amman leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Amman 38, Dubai 82: Dubai leads by 44 points.
Getting around. Amman 30, Dubai 42: Dubai leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Amman 42, Dubai 82: Dubai leads by 40 points.
Affordability. Amman 58, Dubai 32: Amman leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. Amman 27, Dubai 40: Dubai leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Amman 55, Dubai 46: Amman leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Amman and Dubai.

Your match

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

Amman
45match

Wins on day trips and prices with your weighting.

Dubai
Best match
54match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Amman in July

33 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Dubai in July

42 °Cdaytime high
33 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
33 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
AmmanDubai

Where the figures come from

Amman 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.

Amman's sunshine is measured 55 km from the centre, at Mafraq.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Amman: 1994-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Amman Airport (6 km from centre). Dubai: 1991-2020 normals, Dubai International Airport (3.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAmmanDubai
Official languageArabicArabic
CurrencyJordanian Dinar (JOD)UAE Dirham (AED)
SocketsBCFGJ230 V, 50 HzCG220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+4
Emergency number911112
Elevation776 m0 m
Main airportQueen Alia International Airport (AMM)26 km from centre98 non-stop destinationsDubai International Airport (DXB)7 km from centre294 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasureAmmanDubai
City population4,007,5263,944,751
People per km²2,385-
Museums within 10 km814
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Amman or Dubai 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.