VacationSelector
The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, Muscat
MuscatThe Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque
The Christuskirche among palms, Windhoek
WindhoekThe Christuskirche among palms

Photos: Muscat by Alli Khalil, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Windhoek by Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Muscat or Windhoek?

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
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Windhoek for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Windhoek’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, Windhoek 4: Muscat leads by 68 points.
Food & drink. Muscat 44, Windhoek 36: Muscat leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Muscat 55, Windhoek 30: Muscat leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Muscat 14, Windhoek 25: Windhoek leads by 11 points.
Nature & outdoors. Muscat 70, Windhoek 52: Muscat leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Muscat 62, Windhoek 14: Muscat leads by 48 points.
Good for families. Muscat 52, Windhoek 30: Muscat leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Muscat 20, Windhoek 22: Windhoek leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Muscat 42, Windhoek 30: Muscat leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Muscat 45, Windhoek 62: Windhoek leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Muscat 40, Windhoek 18: Muscat leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Muscat 55, Windhoek 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 Windhoek.

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 day trips with your weighting.

Windhoek
29match

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

Windhoek in July

22 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
MuscatWindhoek

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). Windhoek: 1991-2020 normals, Windhoek (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMuscatWindhoek
Official languageArabicEnglish
CurrencyRial Omani (OMR)Namibia Dollar (NAD)
SocketsCG240 V, 50 HzM220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+4UTC+2
Emergency number968112
Elevation69 m1,650 m
Main airportMuscat International Airport (MCT)31 km from centre83 non-stop destinationsHosea Kutako International Airport (WDH)41 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMuscatWindhoek
City population1,421,409486,169
People per km²40695
Museums within 10 km105
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Muscat or Windhoek 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). Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.