VacationSelector
Galena Street with the runs of Aspen Mountain, Aspen
AspenGalena Street with the runs of Aspen Mountain
The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, Muscat
MuscatThe Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque

Photos: Aspen by Moroder, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Muscat by Alli Khalil, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Aspen 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 Aspen for

  • getting around
  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Muscat for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • culture and sights

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. Aspen 6, Muscat 72: Muscat leads by 66 points.
Food & drink. Aspen 45, Muscat 44: Aspen leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Aspen 22, Muscat 55: Muscat leads by 33 points.
Nightlife. Aspen 40, Muscat 14: Aspen leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Aspen 95, Muscat 70: Aspen leads by 25 points.
Day trips. Aspen 30, Muscat 62: Muscat leads by 32 points.
Good for families. Aspen 55, Muscat 52: Aspen leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Aspen 72, Muscat 20: Aspen leads by 52 points.
Shopping & style. Aspen 50, Muscat 42: Aspen leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Aspen 5, Muscat 45: Muscat leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Aspen 50, Muscat 40: Aspen leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Aspen 50, Muscat 55: Muscat leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Aspen and Muscat.

Your match

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

Aspen
43match

Wins on getting around and nightlife with your weighting.

Muscat
Best match
48match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Aspen in July

27 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
33 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 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

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

010203040JFMAMJJASOND
AspenMuscat

Where the figures come from

Aspen 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.

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. Aspen: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Aspen / Woody Creek (5.2 km from centre). Muscat: 1991-2020 normals, Qaboos Port (3.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAspenMuscat
Official language-Arabic
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Rial Omani (OMR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC+4
Emergency number911968
Elevation2,405 m69 m
Main airportAspen-Pitkin County Airport (Sardy Field) (ASE)5 km from centre11 non-stop destinationsMuscat International Airport (MCT)31 km from centre83 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days-

By the numbers

MeasureAspenMuscat
City population7,0041,421,409
People per km²700406
Museums within 10 km210
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Aspen 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). 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. 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.

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.