VacationSelector
The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, Muscat
MuscatThe Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque
Seven Mile Beach, Negril
NegrilSeven Mile Beach

Photos: Muscat by Alli Khalil, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Negril by gustavo.kunst, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Muscat or Negril?

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 Muscat for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • shopping

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

Choose Negril for

  • nightlife
  • beaches
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Negril’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. Muscat 72, Negril 93: Negril leads by 21 points.
Food & drink. Muscat 44, Negril 36: Muscat leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Muscat 55, Negril 8: Muscat leads by 47 points.
Nightlife. Muscat 14, Negril 40: Negril leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Muscat 70, Negril 60: Muscat leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Muscat 62, Negril 35: Muscat leads by 27 points.
Good for families. Muscat 52, Negril 45: Muscat leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Muscat 20, Negril 30: Negril leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Muscat 42, Negril 15: Muscat leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Muscat 45, Negril 44: Muscat leads by 1 points.
Live music & performing arts. Muscat 40, Negril 33: Muscat leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Muscat 55, Negril 52: Muscat leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Muscat and Negril.

Your match

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

Muscat
Best match
48match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips with your weighting.

Negril
41match

Wins on nightlife and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Negril in July

34 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
174 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
MuscatNegril

Where the figures come from

Muscat's sunshine is measured 32 km from the centre, at Seeb, International Airport.

Negril's temperatures are measured 52 km from the centre, at Montego Bay / Sangster.

Negril 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. Muscat: 1991-2020 normals, Qaboos Port (3.4 km from centre). Negril: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (51.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMuscatNegril
Official languageArabicEnglish, Jamaican Patois
CurrencyRial Omani (OMR)Jamaican Dollar (JMD)
SocketsCG240 V, 50 HzAB116 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+4UTC-5
Emergency number968Police 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation69 m10 m
Main airportMuscat International Airport (MCT)31 km from centre83 non-stop destinationsSangster International Airport (MBJ)52 km from centre48 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-10 days

By the numbers

MeasureMuscatNegril
City population1,421,4094,500
People per km²406-
Museums within 10 km100
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Muscat or Negril 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). 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.