VacationSelector
The Fisherman's Bastion, Budapest
BudapestThe Fisherman's Bastion
The lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh, Sharm el-Sheikh
Sharm el-SheikhThe lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh

Photos: Budapest by Perituss, CC0; Sharm el-Sheikh by Tanya Dedyukhina, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Budapest 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 Budapest for

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

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

Choose Sharm el-Sheikh for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

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. Budapest 25, Sharm el-Sheikh 87: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 62 points.
Food & drink. Budapest 63, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: Budapest leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. Budapest 80, Sharm el-Sheikh 12: Budapest leads by 68 points.
Nightlife. Budapest 78, Sharm el-Sheikh 42: Budapest leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Budapest 58, Sharm el-Sheikh 82: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Budapest 68, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: Budapest leads by 38 points.
Good for families. Budapest and Sharm el-Sheikh are level on 62.
Getting around. Budapest 78, Sharm el-Sheikh 22: Budapest leads by 56 points.
Shopping & style. Budapest 55, Sharm el-Sheikh 25: Budapest leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Budapest 62, Sharm el-Sheikh 74: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Budapest 76, Sharm el-Sheikh 10: Budapest leads by 66 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Budapest 98, Sharm el-Sheikh 50: Budapest leads by 48 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Budapest and Sharm el-Sheikh.

Your match

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

Budapest
Best match
67match

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

Sharm el-Sheikh
44match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Budapest in July

27 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
75 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 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

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
BudapestSharm 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. Budapest: 1991-2020 normals, Budapest Met Center (2.1 km from centre). Sharm el-Sheikh: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureBudapestSharm el-Sheikh
Official languageHungarianArabic
CurrencyForint (HUF)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
Elevation117 m1 m
Main airportBudapest Liszt Ferenc International Airport (BUD)18 km from centre157 non-stop destinationsSharm El Sheikh International Airport (SSH)16 km from centre112 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureBudapestSharm el-Sheikh
City population1,675,77773,000
People per km²3,191-
Museums within 10 km811
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Budapest 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.