VacationSelector
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens
The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, Muscat
MuscatThe Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque

Photos: Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Muscat by Alli Khalil, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Edinburgh 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 Edinburgh for

  • getting around
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Muscat for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • prices

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. Edinburgh 22, Muscat 72: Muscat leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Edinburgh 53, Muscat 44: Edinburgh leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Edinburgh 75, Muscat 55: Edinburgh leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Edinburgh 50, Muscat 14: Edinburgh leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Edinburgh 75, Muscat 70: Edinburgh leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Edinburgh 75, Muscat 62: Edinburgh leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Edinburgh 62, Muscat 52: Edinburgh leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Edinburgh 74, Muscat 20: Edinburgh leads by 54 points.
Shopping & style. Edinburgh 50, Muscat 42: Edinburgh leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Edinburgh 30, Muscat 45: Muscat leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Edinburgh 72, Muscat 40: Edinburgh leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Edinburgh 34, Muscat 55: Muscat leads by 21 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Edinburgh and Muscat.

Your match

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

Edinburgh
Best match
56match

Wins on getting around and nightlife with your weighting.

Muscat
48match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Edinburgh in July

19 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
66 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
14 °Csea
17 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

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
EdinburghMuscat

Where the figures come from

Edinburgh 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.

Edinburgh's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at Leuchars.

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. Edinburgh: 1991-2020 normals, Edinburgh Airport (10 km from centre). Muscat: 1991-2020 normals, Qaboos Port (3.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEdinburghMuscat
Official languageEnglishArabic
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Rial Omani (OMR)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+4
Emergency number112 or 999968
Elevation47 m69 m
Main airportEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinationsMuscat International Airport (MCT)31 km from centre83 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days-

By the numbers

MeasureEdinburghMuscat
City population488,0501,421,409
People per km²1,884406
Museums within 10 km3210
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Edinburgh 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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. 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.