VacationSelector
The Burj Al Arab, Dubai
DubaiThe Burj Al Arab
Stortorget in Gamla stan, Stockholm
StockholmStortorget in Gamla stan

Photos: Dubai by Aleksandar Pasaric, Pexels License; Stockholm by Jorge Franganillo, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Dubai or Stockholm?

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
  • food and drink
  • shopping

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

Choose Stockholm for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Stockholm’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, Stockholm 40: Dubai leads by 40 points.
Food & drink. Dubai 76, Stockholm 64: Dubai leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Dubai 40, Stockholm 77: Stockholm leads by 37 points.
Nightlife. Dubai 62, Stockholm 57: Dubai leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Dubai 25, Stockholm 72: Stockholm leads by 47 points.
Day trips. Dubai 45, Stockholm 68: Stockholm leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Dubai and Stockholm are level on 82.
Getting around. Dubai 42, Stockholm 84: Stockholm leads by 42 points.
Shopping & style. Dubai 82, Stockholm 70: Dubai leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Dubai 32, Stockholm 30: Dubai leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Dubai 40, Stockholm 65: Stockholm leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Dubai 46, Stockholm 56: Stockholm leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Dubai and Stockholm.

Your match

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

Dubai
54match

Wins on beaches and food and drink with your weighting.

Stockholm
Best match
64match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around 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
No recordsunshine a day
33 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Stockholm in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
65 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
18 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
DubaiStockholm

Where the figures come from

Stockholm 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.

Stockholm's sunshine is measured 26 km from the centre, at Stockholm Observatoriet.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Dubai: 1991-2020 normals, Dubai International Airport (3.3 km from centre). Stockholm: 2003-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Stockholm Bromma Airport (7.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDubaiStockholm
Official languageArabicSwedish
CurrencyUAE Dirham (AED)Swedish Krona (SEK)
SocketsCG220 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+4UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation0 m22 m
Main airportDubai International Airport (DXB)7 km from centre294 non-stop destinationsStockholm-Arlanda Airport (ARN)36 km from centre174 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-16 days

By the numbers

MeasureDubaiStockholm
City population3,944,751984,748
People per km²-5,260
Museums within 10 km14266
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km03
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Dubai or Stockholm 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.