VacationSelector
The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, Muscat
MuscatThe Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge

Photos: Muscat by Alli Khalil, CC BY 4.0, cropped; San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License.

Muscat or San Francisco?

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

  • beaches
  • prices
  • wellness

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

Choose San Francisco for

  • getting around
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on San Francisco’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, San Francisco 25: Muscat leads by 47 points.
Food & drink. Muscat 44, San Francisco 82: San Francisco leads by 38 points.
Culture & sights. Muscat 55, San Francisco 68: San Francisco leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Muscat 14, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 44 points.
Nature & outdoors. Muscat 70, San Francisco 80: San Francisco leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Muscat 62, San Francisco 72: San Francisco leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Muscat 52, San Francisco 66: San Francisco leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Muscat 20, San Francisco 70: San Francisco leads by 50 points.
Shopping & style. Muscat 42, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Muscat 45, San Francisco 14: Muscat leads by 31 points.
Live music & performing arts. Muscat 40, San Francisco 76: San Francisco leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Muscat 55, San Francisco 42: Muscat leads by 13 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Muscat and San Francisco.

Your match

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

Muscat
48match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

San Francisco
Best match
59match

Wins on getting around 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

San Francisco in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
MuscatSan Francisco

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). San Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMuscatSan Francisco
Official languageArabic-
CurrencyRial Omani (OMR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCG240 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+4UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number968911
Elevation69 m16 m
Main airportMuscat International Airport (MCT)31 km from centre83 non-stop destinationsSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMuscatSan Francisco
City population1,421,409873,965
People per km²4061,455
Museums within 10 km1051
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Muscat or San Francisco 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.