VacationSelector
The Blue Mosque, Istanbul
IstanbulThe Blue Mosque
The colonnaded court of Luxor Temple, Luxor
LuxorThe colonnaded court of Luxor Temple

Photos: Istanbul by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Luxor by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Istanbul 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 Istanbul for

  • nightlife
  • shopping
  • food and drink

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

Choose Luxor for

  • prices
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

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. Istanbul 45, Luxor 6: Istanbul leads by 39 points.
Food & drink. Istanbul 87, Luxor 30: Istanbul leads by 57 points.
Culture & sights. Istanbul 90, Luxor 95: Luxor leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Istanbul 77, Luxor 10: Istanbul leads by 67 points.
Nature & outdoors. Istanbul 52, Luxor 32: Istanbul leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Istanbul 55, Luxor 62: Luxor leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Istanbul 55, Luxor 30: Istanbul leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Istanbul 62, Luxor 35: Istanbul leads by 27 points.
Shopping & style. Istanbul 86, Luxor 25: Istanbul leads by 61 points.
Affordability. Istanbul 60, Luxor 90: Luxor leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Istanbul 62, Luxor 10: Istanbul leads by 52 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Istanbul 75, Luxor 28: Istanbul leads by 47 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Istanbul and Luxor.

Your match

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

Istanbul
Best match
67match

Wins on nightlife and shopping with your weighting.

Luxor
38match

Wins on prices and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Istanbul in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Luxor in July

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

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
IstanbulLuxor

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. Istanbul: 1991-2020 normals, Istanbul / Goztepe (9.9 km from centre). Luxor: 1998-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Luxor (6.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureIstanbulLuxor
Official languageTurkishArabic
CurrencyTurkish Lira (TRY)Egyptian Pound (EGP)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number112Police 122, ambulance 123, fire 180
Elevation100 m89 m
Main airportİstanbul Airport (IST)36 km from centre343 non-stop destinationsLuxor International Airport (LXR)7 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureIstanbulLuxor
City population15,655,924202,232
People per km²2,930486
Museums within 10 km734
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Istanbul 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). 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. 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.