VacationSelector
The blue gate of Bab Bou Jeloud, Fes
FesThe blue gate of Bab Bou Jeloud
The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, Muscat
MuscatThe Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque

Photos: Fes by Ideophagous, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Muscat by Alli Khalil, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Fes 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 Fes for

  • prices
  • shopping
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Muscat for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Fes 5, Muscat 72: Muscat leads by 67 points.
Food & drink. Fes 62, Muscat 44: Fes leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Fes 80, Muscat 55: Fes leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Fes 12, Muscat 14: Muscat leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Fes 52, Muscat 70: Muscat leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Fes and Muscat are level on 62.
Good for families. Fes 22, Muscat 52: Muscat leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Fes 40, Muscat 20: Fes leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Fes 68, Muscat 42: Fes leads by 26 points.
Affordability. Fes 80, Muscat 45: Fes leads by 35 points.
Live music & performing arts. Fes 32, Muscat 40: Muscat leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Fes 70, Muscat 55: Fes leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Fes 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

Fes
49match

Wins on prices and shopping 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.

Fes in July

36 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 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
FesMuscat

Where the figures come from

Fes's station stands 171 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Fes 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.

Fes's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at Meknes.

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. Fes: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Fes-Sais (12.4 km from centre). Muscat: 1991-2020 normals, Qaboos Port (3.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFesMuscat
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightArabic
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Rial Omani (OMR)
SocketsCE50 HzCG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC+4
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15968
Elevation408 m69 m
Main airportFes Saïss International Airport (FEZ)13 km from centre35 non-stop destinationsMuscat International Airport (MCT)31 km from centre83 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureFesMuscat
City population1,167,8421,421,409
People per km²3,650406
Museums within 10 km210
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Fes 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.