VacationSelector
The Texas State Capitol under a blue sky, Austin
AustinThe Texas State Capitol under a blue sky
The Burj Al Arab, Dubai
DubaiThe Burj Al Arab

Photos: Austin by LoneStarMike, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Dubai by Aleksandar Pasaric, Pexels License.

Austin 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 Austin for

  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

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

Choose Dubai for

  • beaches
  • shopping
  • families

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. Austin 30, Dubai 80: Dubai leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Austin 66, Dubai 76: Dubai leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Austin and Dubai are level on 40.
Nightlife. Austin 65, Dubai 62: Austin leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Austin 57, Dubai 25: Austin leads by 32 points.
Day trips. Austin 58, Dubai 45: Austin leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Austin 55, Dubai 82: Dubai leads by 27 points.
Getting around. Austin 30, Dubai 42: Dubai leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Austin 45, Dubai 82: Dubai leads by 37 points.
Affordability. Austin 33, Dubai 32: Austin leads by 1 points.
Live music & performing arts. Austin 77, Dubai 40: Austin leads by 37 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Austin 40, Dubai 46: Dubai leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Austin and Dubai.

Your match

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

Austin
50match

Wins on live music and the arts and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Dubai
Best match
54match

Wins on beaches and shopping with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Austin in July

36 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
49 mmrain in the month
10 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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
AustinDubai

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Austin: 1991-2020 normals, Camp Mabry/Austin City Asos (3.7 km from centre). Dubai: 1991-2020 normals, Dubai International Airport (3.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAustinDubai
Official language-Arabic
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)UAE Dirham (AED)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCG220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC+4
Emergency number911112
Elevation149 m0 m
Main airportAustin Bergstrom International Airport (AUS)13 km from centre91 non-stop destinationsDubai International Airport (DXB)7 km from centre294 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureAustinDubai
City population961,8553,944,751
People per km²1,217-
Museums within 10 km2114
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 Austin 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). 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.