VacationSelector
The Burj Al Arab, Dubai
DubaiThe Burj Al Arab
The colonnaded court of Luxor Temple, Luxor
LuxorThe colonnaded court of Luxor Temple

Photos: Dubai by Aleksandar Pasaric, Pexels License; Luxor by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Dubai or Luxor?

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 Dubai for

  • beaches
  • shopping
  • nightlife

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

Choose Luxor for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Luxor’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. Dubai 80, Luxor 6: Dubai leads by 74 points.
Food & drink. Dubai 76, Luxor 30: Dubai leads by 46 points.
Culture & sights. Dubai 40, Luxor 95: Luxor leads by 55 points.
Nightlife. Dubai 62, Luxor 10: Dubai leads by 52 points.
Nature & outdoors. Dubai 25, Luxor 32: Luxor leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Dubai 45, Luxor 62: Luxor leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Dubai 82, Luxor 30: Dubai leads by 52 points.
Getting around. Dubai 42, Luxor 35: Dubai leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Dubai 82, Luxor 25: Dubai leads by 57 points.
Affordability. Dubai 32, Luxor 90: Luxor leads by 58 points.
Live music & performing arts. Dubai 40, Luxor 10: Dubai leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Dubai 46, Luxor 28: Dubai leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Dubai and Luxor.

Your match

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

Dubai
Best match
54match

Wins on beaches and shopping with your weighting.

Luxor
38match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Dubai in July

42 °Cdaytime high
33 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
33 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Luxor in July

41 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0510152025JFMAMJJASOND
DubaiLuxor

Where the figures come from

Luxor 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Dubai: 1991-2020 normals, Dubai International Airport (3.3 km from centre). Luxor: 1998-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Luxor (6.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDubaiLuxor
Official languageArabicArabic
CurrencyUAE Dirham (AED)Egyptian Pound (EGP)
SocketsCG220 V, 50 HzCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+4UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number112Police 122, ambulance 123, fire 180
Elevation0 m89 m
Main airportDubai International Airport (DXB)7 km from centre294 non-stop destinationsLuxor International Airport (LXR)7 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-15 days

By the numbers

MeasureDubaiLuxor
City population3,944,751202,232
People per km²-486
Museums within 10 km144
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Dubai or Luxor 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.