VacationSelector
The pyramids of Giza, Cairo
CairoThe pyramids of Giza
The Dutch Reformed Church in Galle Fort, Galle
GalleThe Dutch Reformed Church in Galle Fort

Photos: Cairo by Ricardo Liberato, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Galle by Francisco Anzola, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Cairo 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 Cairo for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Cairo’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. Cairo 10, Galle 80: Galle leads by 70 points.
Food & drink. Cairo 60, Galle 50: Cairo leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Cairo 96, Galle 55: Cairo leads by 41 points.
Nightlife. Cairo 48, Galle 18: Cairo leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cairo 30, Galle 66: Galle leads by 36 points.
Day trips. Cairo 66, Galle 50: Cairo leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Cairo 32, Galle 42: Galle leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Cairo and Galle are level on 35.
Shopping & style. Cairo 58, Galle 33: Cairo leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Cairo 95, Galle 72: Cairo leads by 23 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cairo 50, Galle 10: Cairo leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cairo 15, Galle 70: Galle leads by 55 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cairo and Galle.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Cairo
50match

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

Galle
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.

Cairo in July

36 °Cdaytime high
23 °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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
CairoGalle

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. Cairo: 1991-2020 normals, Helwan (21.9 km from centre). Galle: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureCairoGalle
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
Elevation23 m0 m
Main airportCairo International Airport (CAI)17 km from centre127 non-stop destinationsBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)133 km from centre56 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCairoGalle
City population9,801,53693,118
People per km²18,564-
Museums within 10 km482
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
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 Cairo 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.