VacationSelector
The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, Muscat
MuscatThe Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House

Photos: Muscat by Alli Khalil, CC BY 4.0, cropped; San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Muscat or San Jose?

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 Jose for

  • nightlife
  • day trips
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on San Jose’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 Jose 30: Muscat leads by 42 points.
Food & drink. Muscat 44, San Jose 56: San Jose leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Muscat 55, San Jose 36: Muscat leads by 19 points.
Nightlife. Muscat 14, San Jose 33: San Jose leads by 19 points.
Nature & outdoors. Muscat 70, San Jose 72: San Jose leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Muscat 62, San Jose 78: San Jose leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Muscat 52, San Jose 65: San Jose leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Muscat 20, San Jose 30: San Jose leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Muscat 42, San Jose 48: San Jose leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Muscat 45, San Jose 20: Muscat leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Muscat 40, San Jose 38: Muscat leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Muscat 55, San Jose 30: Muscat leads by 25 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Muscat and San Jose.

Your match

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

Muscat
Best match
48match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

San Jose
45match

Wins on nightlife and day trips 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 Jose in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
14 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
MuscatSan Jose

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 Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMuscatSan Jose
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 m25 m
Main airportMuscat International Airport (MCT)31 km from centre83 non-stop destinationsMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMuscatSan Jose
City population1,421,4091,013,240
People per km²4062,167
Museums within 10 km1019
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 Jose 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.