VacationSelector
The Sagrada Família, Barcelona
BarcelonaThe Sagrada Família
The lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh, Sharm el-Sheikh
Sharm el-SheikhThe lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh

Photos: Barcelona by Canaan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Sharm el-Sheikh by Tanya Dedyukhina, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Barcelona 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 Barcelona for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • getting around

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

Choose Sharm el-Sheikh for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • wellness

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. Barcelona 75, Sharm el-Sheikh 87: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Barcelona 82, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: Barcelona leads by 52 points.
Culture & sights. Barcelona 86, Sharm el-Sheikh 12: Barcelona leads by 74 points.
Nightlife. Barcelona 82, Sharm el-Sheikh 42: Barcelona leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. Barcelona 72, Sharm el-Sheikh 82: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Barcelona 80, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: Barcelona leads by 50 points.
Good for families. Barcelona 76, Sharm el-Sheikh 62: Barcelona leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Barcelona 80, Sharm el-Sheikh 22: Barcelona leads by 58 points.
Shopping & style. Barcelona 75, Sharm el-Sheikh 25: Barcelona leads by 50 points.
Affordability. Barcelona 44, Sharm el-Sheikh 74: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Barcelona 70, Sharm el-Sheikh 10: Barcelona leads by 60 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Barcelona 38, Sharm el-Sheikh 50: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Barcelona and Sharm el-Sheikh.

Your match

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

Barcelona
Best match
72match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Sharm el-Sheikh
44match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Barcelona in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 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

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
BarcelonaSharm 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. Barcelona: 1991-2020 normals, Barcelona / Aeropuerto (14.4 km from centre). Sharm el-Sheikh: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureBarcelonaSharm el-Sheikh
Official languageSpanishArabic
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Egyptian Pound (EGP)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number112Police 122, ambulance 123, fire 180
Elevation9 m1 m
Main airportJosep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN)13 km from centre235 non-stop destinationsSharm El Sheikh International Airport (SSH)16 km from centre112 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureBarcelonaSharm el-Sheikh
City population1,731,64973,000
People per km²17,094-
Museums within 10 km951
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Barcelona 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. 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.