VacationSelector
Bougainvillea and the dome of Agia Napa Cathedral, Limassol
LimassolBougainvillea and the dome of Agia Napa Cathedral
The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, Muscat
MuscatThe Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque

Photos: Limassol by Julian Lupyan, CC0; Muscat by Alli Khalil, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Limassol 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 Limassol for

  • nightlife
  • getting around
  • food and drink

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

Choose Muscat for

  • culture and sights
  • wellness
  • live music and the arts

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. Limassol 77, Muscat 72: Limassol leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Limassol 58, Muscat 44: Limassol leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Limassol 38, Muscat 55: Muscat leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Limassol 50, Muscat 14: Limassol leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Limassol 65, Muscat 70: Muscat leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Limassol 76, Muscat 62: Limassol leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Limassol 63, Muscat 52: Limassol leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Limassol 38, Muscat 20: Limassol leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Limassol and Muscat are level on 42.
Affordability. Limassol 44, Muscat 45: Muscat leads by 1 points.
Live music & performing arts. Limassol 32, Muscat 40: Muscat leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Limassol 42, Muscat 55: Muscat leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Limassol and Muscat.

Your match

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

Limassol
Best match
52match

Wins on nightlife and getting around with your weighting.

Muscat
48match

Wins on culture and sights 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.

Limassol in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
13 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
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

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
LimassolMuscat

Where the figures come from

Limassol 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.

Limassol's sunshine is measured 59 km from the centre, at Larnaca Airport.

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. Limassol: 1998-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Akrotiri (11.6 km from centre). Muscat: 1991-2020 normals, Qaboos Port (3.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLimassolMuscat
Official languageTurkish, Greek, Modern GreekArabic
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Rial Omani (OMR)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzCG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+4
Emergency number112968
Elevation10 m69 m
Main airportLarnaca International Airport (LCA)58 km from centre112 non-stop destinationsMuscat International Airport (MCT)31 km from centre83 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days-

By the numbers

MeasureLimassolMuscat
City population107,9701,421,409
People per km²2,405406
Museums within 10 km210
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Limassol or Muscat somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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.