VacationSelector
Swayambhunath with its prayer flags, Kathmandu
KathmanduSwayambhunath with its prayer flags
The colonnaded court of Luxor Temple, Luxor
LuxorThe colonnaded court of Luxor Temple

Photos: Kathmandu by Nabin K. Sapkota, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Luxor by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Kathmandu 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 Kathmandu for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • shopping
  • nightlife

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

Choose Luxor for

  • culture and sights
  • families
  • getting around

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. Kathmandu 4, Luxor 6: Luxor leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Kathmandu 55, Luxor 30: Kathmandu leads by 25 points.
Culture & sights. Kathmandu 82, Luxor 95: Luxor leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Kathmandu 36, Luxor 10: Kathmandu leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kathmandu 70, Luxor 32: Kathmandu leads by 38 points.
Day trips. Kathmandu 56, Luxor 62: Luxor leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Kathmandu 20, Luxor 30: Luxor leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Kathmandu 25, Luxor 35: Luxor leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Kathmandu 55, Luxor 25: Kathmandu leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Kathmandu 97, Luxor 90: Kathmandu leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kathmandu 28, Luxor 10: Kathmandu leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kathmandu 45, Luxor 28: Kathmandu leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kathmandu and Luxor.

Your match

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

Kathmandu
Best match
48match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and shopping with your weighting.

Luxor
38match

Wins on culture and sights 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.

Kathmandu in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
384 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Luxor in July

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

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
KathmanduLuxor

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. Kathmandu: 1991-2020 normals, Kathmandu Airport (4.7 km from centre). Luxor: 1998-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Luxor (6.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKathmanduLuxor
Official languageNepaliArabic
CurrencyNepalese Rupee (NPR)Egyptian Pound (EGP)
SocketsCM230 V, 50 HzCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+5:45UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 100, ambulance 102, fire 101Police 122, ambulance 123, fire 180
Elevation1,300 m89 m
Main airportTribhuvan International Airport (KTM)4 km from centre38 non-stop destinationsLuxor International Airport (LXR)7 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-15 days

By the numbers

MeasureKathmanduLuxor
City population845,767202,232
People per km²17,121486
Museums within 10 km94
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Kathmandu 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. 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.