VacationSelector
The Umayyad Palace on the Amman Citadel, Amman
AmmanThe Umayyad Palace on the Amman Citadel
The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, Muscat
MuscatThe Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque

Photos: Amman by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Muscat by Alli Khalil, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Amman or Muscat?

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

  • food and drink
  • nightlife
  • day trips

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

Choose Muscat for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Muscat’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, Muscat 72: Muscat leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Amman 62, Muscat 44: Amman leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Amman 54, Muscat 55: Muscat leads by 1 points.
Nightlife. Amman 32, Muscat 14: Amman leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Amman 45, Muscat 70: Muscat leads by 25 points.
Day trips. Amman 80, Muscat 62: Amman leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Amman 38, Muscat 52: Muscat leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Amman 30, Muscat 20: Amman leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Amman and Muscat are level on 42.
Affordability. Amman 58, Muscat 45: Amman leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Amman 27, Muscat 40: Muscat leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Amman and Muscat are level on 55.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Amman and Muscat.

Your match

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

Amman
45match

Wins on food and drink and nightlife with your weighting.

Muscat
Best match
48match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors 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

Muscat in July

33 °Cdaytime high
30 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
31 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
AmmanMuscat

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.

Muscat's sunshine is measured 32 km from the centre, at Seeb, International Airport.

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). Muscat: 1991-2020 normals, Qaboos Port (3.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAmmanMuscat
Official languageArabicArabic
CurrencyJordanian Dinar (JOD)Rial Omani (OMR)
SocketsBCFGJ230 V, 50 HzCG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+4
Emergency number911968
Elevation776 m69 m
Main airportQueen Alia International Airport (AMM)26 km from centre98 non-stop destinationsMuscat International Airport (MCT)31 km from centre83 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasureAmmanMuscat
City population4,007,5261,421,409
People per km²2,385406
Museums within 10 km810
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 Muscat 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.