VacationSelector
The Story Bridge from Howard Smith Wharves, Brisbane
BrisbaneThe Story Bridge from Howard Smith Wharves
The lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh, Sharm el-Sheikh
Sharm el-SheikhThe lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh

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

Brisbane 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 Brisbane for

  • live music and the arts
  • getting around
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Brisbane’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. Brisbane 55, Sharm el-Sheikh 87: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 32 points.
Food & drink. Brisbane 60, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: Brisbane leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Brisbane 42, Sharm el-Sheikh 12: Brisbane leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Brisbane 55, Sharm el-Sheikh 42: Brisbane leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Brisbane 74, Sharm el-Sheikh 82: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Brisbane 50, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: Brisbane leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Brisbane 78, Sharm el-Sheikh 62: Brisbane leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Brisbane 62, Sharm el-Sheikh 22: Brisbane leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Brisbane 45, Sharm el-Sheikh 25: Brisbane leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Brisbane 33, Sharm el-Sheikh 74: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 41 points.
Live music & performing arts. Brisbane 55, Sharm el-Sheikh 10: Brisbane leads by 45 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Brisbane 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: Brisbane and Sharm el-Sheikh.

Your match

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

Brisbane
Best match
54match

Wins on live music and the arts and getting around 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.

Brisbane in July

22 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
20 °Csea
11 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

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BrisbaneSharm 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. Brisbane: 1991-2020 normals, Brisbane (4.5 km from centre). Sharm el-Sheikh: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureBrisbaneSharm el-Sheikh
Official languageEnglishArabic
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Egyptian Pound (EGP)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number000Police 122, ambulance 123, fire 180
Elevation0 m1 m
Main airportBrisbane International Airport (BNE)13 km from centre88 non-stop destinationsSharm El Sheikh International Airport (SSH)16 km from centre112 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureBrisbaneSharm el-Sheikh
City population2,706,96673,000
People per km²171-
Museums within 10 km161
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C9 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Brisbane 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). 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. 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.