VacationSelector
The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, Muscat
MuscatThe Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque
York Minster from the city walls, York
YorkYork Minster from the city walls

Photos: Muscat by Alli Khalil, CC BY 4.0, cropped; York by PAUL FARMER, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Muscat or York?

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
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose York for

  • getting around
  • nightlife
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on York’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, York 14: Muscat leads by 58 points.
Food & drink. Muscat 44, York 42: Muscat leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Muscat 55, York 70: York leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Muscat 14, York 36: York leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Muscat 70, York 62: Muscat leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Muscat 62, York 80: York leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Muscat 52, York 60: York leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Muscat 20, York 72: York leads by 52 points.
Shopping & style. Muscat 42, York 46: York leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Muscat 45, York 38: Muscat leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Muscat 40, York 38: Muscat leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Muscat 55, York 34: Muscat leads by 21 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Muscat and York.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Muscat
48match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

York
49match

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

York in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
MuscatYork

Where the figures come from

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

York has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

York's sunshine is measured 48 km from the centre, at Leeming.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Muscat: 1991-2020 normals, Qaboos Port (3.4 km from centre). York: 1991-2020 normals, Linton-On-Ouse (14.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMuscatYork
Official languageArabicEnglish
CurrencyRial Omani (OMR)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsCG240 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+4UTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number968112 or 999
Elevation69 m25 m
Main airportMuscat International Airport (MCT)31 km from centre83 non-stop destinationsLeeds Bradford Airport (LBA)39 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-8 days

By the numbers

MeasureMuscatYork
City population1,421,409208,400
People per km²406766
Museums within 10 km1024
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
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 York 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.