VacationSelector
The colonnaded court of Luxor Temple, Luxor
LuxorThe colonnaded court of Luxor Temple
The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, Muscat
MuscatThe Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque

Photos: Luxor by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Muscat by Alli Khalil, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Luxor 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 Luxor for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

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

Choose Muscat for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Luxor 6, Muscat 72: Muscat leads by 66 points.
Food & drink. Luxor 30, Muscat 44: Muscat leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Luxor 95, Muscat 55: Luxor leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Luxor 10, Muscat 14: Muscat leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Luxor 32, Muscat 70: Muscat leads by 38 points.
Day trips. Luxor and Muscat are level on 62.
Good for families. Luxor 30, Muscat 52: Muscat leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Luxor 35, Muscat 20: Luxor leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Luxor 25, Muscat 42: Muscat leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Luxor 90, Muscat 45: Luxor leads by 45 points.
Live music & performing arts. Luxor 10, Muscat 40: Muscat leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Luxor 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: Luxor and Muscat.

Your match

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

Luxor
38match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Muscat
Best match
48match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

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°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

05101520JFMAMJJASOND
LuxorMuscat

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.

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. Luxor: 1998-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Luxor (6.5 km from centre). Muscat: 1991-2020 normals, Qaboos Port (3.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLuxorMuscat
Official languageArabicArabic
CurrencyEgyptian Pound (EGP)Rial Omani (OMR)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzCG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+4
Emergency numberPolice 122, ambulance 123, fire 180968
Elevation89 m69 m
Main airportLuxor International Airport (LXR)7 km from centre29 non-stop destinationsMuscat International Airport (MCT)31 km from centre83 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days-

By the numbers

MeasureLuxorMuscat
City population202,2321,421,409
People per km²486406
Museums within 10 km410
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 Luxor 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.