VacationSelector
The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, Muscat
MuscatThe Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque
The Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower, Shanghai
ShanghaiThe Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower

Photos: Muscat by Alli Khalil, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Shanghai by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Muscat or Shanghai?

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
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Shanghai for

  • nightlife
  • getting around
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Shanghai’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, Shanghai 10: Muscat leads by 62 points.
Food & drink. Muscat 44, Shanghai 88: Shanghai leads by 44 points.
Culture & sights. Muscat 55, Shanghai 72: Shanghai leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Muscat 14, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 66 points.
Nature & outdoors. Muscat 70, Shanghai 25: Muscat leads by 45 points.
Day trips. Muscat 62, Shanghai 90: Shanghai leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Muscat 52, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Muscat 20, Shanghai 85: Shanghai leads by 65 points.
Shopping & style. Muscat 42, Shanghai 82: Shanghai leads by 40 points.
Affordability. Muscat 45, Shanghai 55: Shanghai leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Muscat 40, Shanghai 66: Shanghai leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Muscat and Shanghai are level on 55.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Muscat and Shanghai.

Your match

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

Muscat
48match

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

Shanghai
Best match
66match

Wins on nightlife and getting around 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

Shanghai in July

33 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
151 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
MuscatShanghai

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). Shanghai: 1991-2020 normals, Shanghai / Hongqiao (8.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMuscatShanghai
Official languageArabicPutonghua
CurrencyRial Omani (OMR)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsCG240 V, 50 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+4UTC+8
Emergency number968Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation69 m4 m
Main airportMuscat International Airport (MCT)31 km from centre83 non-stop destinationsShanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)33 km from centre207 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-6 days

By the numbers

MeasureMuscatShanghai
City population1,421,40924,870,895
People per km²4063,922
Museums within 10 km1045
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Muscat or Shanghai 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.