VacationSelector
The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, Muscat
MuscatThe Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque
Barlas Island in Honda Bay, Puerto Princesa
Puerto PrincesaBarlas Island in Honda Bay

Photos: Muscat by Alli Khalil, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Puerto Princesa by Ray in Manila, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Muscat or Puerto Princesa?

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

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Puerto Princesa for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Puerto Princesa’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, Puerto Princesa 58: Muscat leads by 14 points.
Food & drink. Muscat 44, Puerto Princesa 38: Muscat leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Muscat 55, Puerto Princesa 22: Muscat leads by 33 points.
Nightlife. Muscat 14, Puerto Princesa 26: Puerto Princesa leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Muscat 70, Puerto Princesa 80: Puerto Princesa leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Muscat 62, Puerto Princesa 12: Muscat leads by 50 points.
Good for families. Muscat 52, Puerto Princesa 45: Muscat leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Muscat 20, Puerto Princesa 30: Puerto Princesa leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Muscat 42, Puerto Princesa 20: Muscat leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Muscat 45, Puerto Princesa 78: Puerto Princesa leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Muscat 40, Puerto Princesa 10: Muscat leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Muscat 55, Puerto Princesa 40: Muscat leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Muscat and Puerto Princesa.

Your match

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

Muscat
Best match
48match

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

Puerto Princesa
38match

Wins on prices 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

Puerto Princesa in July

29 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
216 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
MuscatPuerto Princesa

Where the figures come from

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

Puerto Princesa has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Muscat: 1991-2020 normals, Qaboos Port (3.4 km from centre). Puerto Princesa: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureMuscatPuerto Princesa
Official languageArabicEnglish, Filipino, Taglish
CurrencyRial Omani (OMR)Philippine Peso (PHP)
SocketsCG240 V, 50 HzABC220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+4UTC+8
Emergency number968911
Elevation69 m98 m
Main airportMuscat International Airport (MCT)31 km from centre83 non-stop destinationsPuerto Princesa International Airport / PAF Antonio Bautista Air Base (PPS)2 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-18 days

By the numbers

MeasureMuscatPuerto Princesa
City population1,421,409316,384
People per km²406133
Museums within 10 km101
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 Puerto Princesa 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.