VacationSelector
The Old Port and Le Suquet, Cannes
CannesThe Old Port and Le Suquet
The Burj Al Arab, Dubai
DubaiThe Burj Al Arab

Photos: Cannes by qwesy qwesy, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Dubai by Aleksandar Pasaric, Pexels License.

Cannes 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 Cannes for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • getting around

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

Choose Dubai for

  • families
  • shopping
  • food and drink

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. Cannes and Dubai are level on 80.
Food & drink. Cannes 55, Dubai 76: Dubai leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Cannes 38, Dubai 40: Dubai leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Cannes 42, Dubai 62: Dubai leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cannes 72, Dubai 25: Cannes leads by 47 points.
Day trips. Cannes 86, Dubai 45: Cannes leads by 41 points.
Good for families. Cannes 56, Dubai 82: Dubai leads by 26 points.
Getting around. Cannes 68, Dubai 42: Cannes leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Cannes 60, Dubai 82: Dubai leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Cannes 22, Dubai 32: Dubai leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cannes 38, Dubai 40: Dubai leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cannes 42, Dubai 46: Dubai leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cannes and Dubai.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Cannes
55match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and day trips with your weighting.

Dubai
54match

Wins on families 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.

Cannes in July

29 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 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
CannesDubai

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cannes: 2004-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Cannes (5.8 km from centre). Dubai: 1991-2020 normals, Dubai International Airport (3.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCannesDubai
Official languageFrenchArabic
CurrencyEuro (EUR)UAE Dirham (AED)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzCG220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+4
Emergency number112112
Elevation0 m0 m
Main airportNice-Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE)20 km from centre130 non-stop destinationsDubai International Airport (DXB)7 km from centre294 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCannesDubai
City population74,3503,944,751
People per km²3,793-
Museums within 10 km1614
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cannes 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. 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.