VacationSelector
The church of La Compania under a blue sky, Arequipa
ArequipaThe church of La Compania under a blue sky
The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, Muscat
MuscatThe Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque

Photos: Arequipa by DocSlyper, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Muscat by Alli Khalil, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Arequipa 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 Arequipa for

  • prices
  • getting around
  • food and drink

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

Choose Muscat for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • wellness

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. Arequipa 8, Muscat 72: Muscat leads by 64 points.
Food & drink. Arequipa 66, Muscat 44: Arequipa leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Arequipa 64, Muscat 55: Arequipa leads by 9 points.
Nightlife. Arequipa 36, Muscat 14: Arequipa leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Arequipa 74, Muscat 70: Arequipa leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Arequipa 30, Muscat 62: Muscat leads by 32 points.
Good for families. Arequipa 35, Muscat 52: Muscat leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Arequipa 54, Muscat 20: Arequipa leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. Arequipa 44, Muscat 42: Arequipa leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Arequipa 82, Muscat 45: Arequipa leads by 37 points.
Live music & performing arts. Arequipa 27, Muscat 40: Muscat leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Arequipa 34, Muscat 55: Muscat leads by 21 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Arequipa and Muscat.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Arequipa
46match

Wins on prices and getting around with your weighting.

Muscat
48match

Wins on beaches 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.

Arequipa in July

21 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
11 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

010203040JFMAMJJASOND
ArequipaMuscat

Where the figures come from

Arequipa's station stands 203 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

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. Arequipa: 1991-2020 normals, Arequipa (9.2 km from centre). Muscat: 1991-2020 normals, Qaboos Port (3.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureArequipaMuscat
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaArabic
CurrencySol (PEN)Rial Omani (OMR)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzCG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+4
Emergency number111 or 911968
Elevation2,335 m69 m
Main airportRodríguez Ballón International Airport (AQP)7 km from centre2 non-stop destinationsMuscat International Airport (MCT)31 km from centre83 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days-

By the numbers

MeasureArequipaMuscat
City population1,008,2901,421,409
People per km²1,551406
Museums within 10 km310
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Arequipa 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). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.