VacationSelector
The Texas State Capitol under a blue sky, Austin
AustinThe Texas State Capitol under a blue sky
The lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh, Sharm el-Sheikh
Sharm el-SheikhThe lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh

Photos: Austin by LoneStarMike, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Sharm el-Sheikh by Tanya Dedyukhina, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Austin or Sharm el-Sheikh?

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 Austin for

  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Sharm el-Sheikh for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Sharm el-Sheikh’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. Austin 30, Sharm el-Sheikh 87: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 57 points.
Food & drink. Austin 66, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: Austin leads by 36 points.
Culture & sights. Austin 40, Sharm el-Sheikh 12: Austin leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Austin 65, Sharm el-Sheikh 42: Austin leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Austin 57, Sharm el-Sheikh 82: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 25 points.
Day trips. Austin 58, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: Austin leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Austin 55, Sharm el-Sheikh 62: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Austin 30, Sharm el-Sheikh 22: Austin leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Austin 45, Sharm el-Sheikh 25: Austin leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Austin 33, Sharm el-Sheikh 74: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 41 points.
Live music & performing arts. Austin 77, Sharm el-Sheikh 10: Austin leads by 67 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Austin 40, Sharm el-Sheikh 50: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Austin and Sharm el-Sheikh.

Your match

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

Austin
Best match
50match

Wins on live music and the arts and food and drink with your weighting.

Sharm el-Sheikh
44match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Austin in July

36 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
49 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Sharm el-Sheikh in July

38 °Cdaytime high
28 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
AustinSharm el-Sheikh

Where the figures come from

Sharm el-Sheikh 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. Austin: 1991-2020 normals, Camp Mabry/Austin City Asos (3.7 km from centre). Sharm el-Sheikh: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureAustinSharm el-Sheikh
Official language-Arabic
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Egyptian Pound (EGP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number911Police 122, ambulance 123, fire 180
Elevation149 m1 m
Main airportAustin Bergstrom International Airport (AUS)13 km from centre91 non-stop destinationsSharm El Sheikh International Airport (SSH)16 km from centre112 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureAustinSharm el-Sheikh
City population961,85573,000
People per km²1,217-
Museums within 10 km211
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Austin or Sharm el-Sheikh 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). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.

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.