VacationSelector
Galway Cathedral from the River Corrib, Galway
GalwayGalway Cathedral from the River Corrib
The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, Muscat
MuscatThe Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque

Photos: Galway by Dieglop, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Muscat by Alli Khalil, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Galway 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 Galway for

  • getting around
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Muscat for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • culture and sights

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. Galway 28, Muscat 72: Muscat leads by 44 points.
Food & drink. Galway 45, Muscat 44: Galway leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Galway 33, Muscat 55: Muscat leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Galway 50, Muscat 14: Galway leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Galway 78, Muscat 70: Galway leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Galway 56, Muscat 62: Muscat leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Galway 42, Muscat 52: Muscat leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Galway 58, Muscat 20: Galway leads by 38 points.
Shopping & style. Galway 38, Muscat 42: Muscat leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Galway 28, Muscat 45: Muscat leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Galway 57, Muscat 40: Galway leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Galway 28, Muscat 55: Muscat leads by 27 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Galway and Muscat.

Your match

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

Galway
45match

Wins on getting around and nightlife with your weighting.

Muscat
Best match
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.

Galway in July

20 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
GalwayMuscat

Where the figures come from

Galway's temperatures are measured 64 km from the centre, at Shannon Airport.

Galway 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.

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. Galway: 1991-2020 normals, Shannon Airport (64.2 km from centre). Muscat: 1991-2020 normals, Qaboos Port (3.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGalwayMuscat
Official languageEnglish, IrishArabic
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Rial Omani (OMR)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+4
Emergency number112968
Elevation25 m69 m
Main airportShannon Airport (SNN)64 km from centre39 non-stop destinationsMuscat International Airport (MCT)31 km from centre83 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureGalwayMuscat
City population83,4561,421,409
People per km²1,563406
Museums within 10 km410
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Galway 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. 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.