VacationSelector
Philae temple on the Nile, Aswan
AswanPhilae temple on the Nile
The Dutch Reformed Church in Galle Fort, Galle
GalleThe Dutch Reformed Church in Galle Fort

Photos: Aswan by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Galle by Francisco Anzola, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Aswan or Galle?

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 Aswan for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

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

Choose Galle for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Galle’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. Aswan 10, Galle 80: Galle leads by 70 points.
Food & drink. Aswan 30, Galle 50: Galle leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Aswan 64, Galle 55: Aswan leads by 9 points.
Nightlife. Aswan 8, Galle 18: Galle leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Aswan 45, Galle 66: Galle leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Aswan 52, Galle 50: Aswan leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Aswan 32, Galle 42: Galle leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Aswan 40, Galle 35: Aswan leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Aswan 30, Galle 33: Galle leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Aswan 92, Galle 72: Aswan leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Aswan 14, Galle 10: Aswan leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Aswan 40, Galle 70: Galle leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Aswan and Galle.

Your match

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

Aswan
38match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Galle
Best match
48match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Aswan in July

42 °Cdaytime high
28 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Galle in July

28 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
116 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
AswanGalle

Where the figures come from

Galle has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Aswan: 1991-2020 normals, Asswan (18 km from centre). Galle: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureAswanGalle
Official languageArabicTamil, Sinhala
CurrencyEgyptian Pound (EGP)Sri Lanka Rupee (LKR)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzGM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+5:30
Emergency numberPolice 122, ambulance 123, fire 180Police 119, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation99 m0 m
Main airportAswan International Airport (ASW)16 km from centre2 non-stop destinationsBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)133 km from centre56 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days-

By the numbers

MeasureAswanGalle
City population401,89093,118
People per km²1,072-
Museums within 10 km32
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Aswan or Galle 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.