VacationSelector
The Plaza de Armas with the cathedral and La Compañía, Cusco
CuscoThe Plaza de Armas with the cathedral and La Compañía
The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, Muscat
MuscatThe Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque

Photos: Cusco by Pedro Szekely, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Muscat by Alli Khalil, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Cusco 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 Cusco for

  • nightlife
  • getting around
  • prices

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

Choose Muscat for

  • beaches
  • families
  • 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. Cusco 3, Muscat 72: Muscat leads by 69 points.
Food & drink. Cusco 56, Muscat 44: Cusco leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Cusco 81, Muscat 55: Cusco leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Cusco 42, Muscat 14: Cusco leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cusco 86, Muscat 70: Cusco leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Cusco 78, Muscat 62: Cusco leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Cusco 10, Muscat 52: Muscat leads by 42 points.
Getting around. Cusco 48, Muscat 20: Cusco leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. Cusco 52, Muscat 42: Cusco leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Cusco 73, Muscat 45: Cusco leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cusco 30, Muscat 40: Muscat leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cusco 33, Muscat 55: Muscat leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cusco and Muscat.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Cusco
49match

Wins on nightlife and getting around with your weighting.

Muscat
48match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cusco in July

20 °Cdaytime high
1 °Cnight-time low
5 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

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CuscoMuscat

Where the figures come from

Cusco's station stands 151 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler 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. Cusco: 1991-2020 normals, Cuzco (3.7 km from centre). Muscat: 1991-2020 normals, Qaboos Port (3.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCuscoMuscat
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
Elevation3,399 m69 m
Main airportAlejandro Velasco Astete International Airport (CUZ)5 km from centre6 non-stop destinationsMuscat International Airport (MCT)31 km from centre83 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCuscoMuscat
City population428,4501,421,409
People per km²-406
Museums within 10 km1110
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
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 Cusco 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.