VacationSelector
The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, Muscat
MuscatThe Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque
Whitehall, Henry Flagler's mansion, now the Flagler Museum, Palm Beach
Palm BeachWhitehall, Henry Flagler's mansion, now the Flagler Museum

Photos: Muscat by Alli Khalil, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Palm Beach by Khowald, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Muscat or Palm Beach?

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

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Palm Beach for

  • shopping
  • nightlife
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Palm Beach’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, Palm Beach 82: Palm Beach leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Muscat 44, Palm Beach 47: Palm Beach leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Muscat 55, Palm Beach 45: Muscat leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Muscat 14, Palm Beach 32: Palm Beach leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Muscat 70, Palm Beach 58: Muscat leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Muscat 62, Palm Beach 55: Muscat leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Muscat 52, Palm Beach 62: Palm Beach leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Muscat 20, Palm Beach 32: Palm Beach leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Muscat 42, Palm Beach 66: Palm Beach leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Muscat 45, Palm Beach 12: Muscat leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Muscat 40, Palm Beach 45: Palm Beach leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Muscat and Palm Beach are level on 55.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Muscat and Palm Beach.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Muscat
48match

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

Palm Beach
49match

Wins on shopping and nightlife 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

Palm Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
145 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
MuscatPalm Beach

Where the figures come from

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. Muscat: 1991-2020 normals, Qaboos Port (3.4 km from centre). Palm Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Palm Beach International (6.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMuscatPalm Beach
Official languageArabic-
CurrencyRial Omani (OMR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCG240 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+4UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number968911
Elevation69 m2 m
Main airportMuscat International Airport (MCT)31 km from centre83 non-stop destinationsPresident Donald J. Trump International Airport (DJT)6 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMuscatPalm Beach
City population1,421,4099,245
People per km²406322
Museums within 10 km104
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 Palm Beach 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). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.