VacationSelector

Cairo or Shanghai?

Two destinations compared in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.

The pyramids of Giza, Cairo
Cairo

Photo: Ricardo Liberato, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped

The Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower, Shanghai
Shanghai

Photo: xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped

Your match

Cairo
50
match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Shanghai
✓ Best match
66
match

Wins on getting around and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.

Scoreboard

Our verdict on each category, scored 0 to 100 against fixed benchmark cities.

CairoShanghai
Beaches & swimming. Cairo and Shanghai are level on 10.
Food & drink. Shanghai leads by 28 points.28
Culture & sights. Cairo leads by 24 points.24
Nightlife. Shanghai leads by 32 points.32
Nature & outdoors. Cairo leads by 5 points.5
Day trips. Shanghai leads by 24 points.24
Good for families. Shanghai leads by 48 points.48
Getting around. Shanghai leads by 50 points.50
Shopping & style. Shanghai leads by 24 points.24
Affordability. Cairo leads by 40 points.40
Live music & performing arts. Shanghai leads by 16 points.16
Wellness & relaxation. Shanghai leads by 40 points.40
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cairo and Shanghai.

When should you go?

Pick the month you can travel and see both cities side by side. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Climate figures for July
JulyCairoShanghai
Daytime high36 °C33 °C
Night-time low23 °C26 °C
Rainfall in the month0 mm151 mm
Sunshine12 hours a day6 hours a day
Sea temperatureNo sea26 °C
Daylight14 hours a day14 hours a day

The whole year

Each row is shaded against that destination’s own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that figure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Daytime high, °C
Cairo
19
21
24
29
33
35
36
36
34
30
26
21
Shanghai
9
11
15
21
26
28
33
33
29
23
18
12
Sea temperature, °C
Cairo
No coastline within reach
Shanghai
8
7
10
14
19
22
26
28
26
21
17
12
Rainfall, mm
Cairo
6
5
10
1
1
0
0
0
0
1
1
7
Shanghai
69
65
88
72
84
192
151
216
97
64
53
43
Daylight, hours per day
Cairo
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
13
12
12
11
10
Shanghai
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
13
12
11
11
10
Sunshine, hours per day
Cairo
7
7
9
9
11
11
12
11
10
10
9
7
Shanghai
4
4
5
5
6
4
6
6
5
5
4
4

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cairo: 1991-2020 normals, Helwan (21.9 km from centre). Shanghai: 1991-2020 normals, Shanghai / Hongqiao (8.1 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Getting there

Flying fromCairoShanghai
BeijingPEK, PKX
9 h 30 m
€644-746
1 stop
CAI · 17 km
2 h 0 m
€150-154
PVG · 33 km
ChengduTFU, CTU
8 h 45 m
no fares
CAI · 17 km
2 h 35 m
€216-247
PVG · 33 km
TokyoHND, NRT
11 h 55 m
no fares
CAI · 17 km
2 h 45 m
€326-382
PVG · 33 km
MilanMXP, BGY, LIN
3 h 45 m
€147-173
CAI · 17 km
11 h 25 m
no fares
PVG · 33 km
RiyadhRUH
2 h 35 m
€154-163
CAI · 17 km
9 h 15 m
no fares
PVG · 33 km
IstanbulIST, SAW
2 h 10 m
€154-167
CAI · 17 km
10 h 5 m
no fares
PVG · 33 km
ShenzhenSZX
10 h 10 m
no fares
CAI · 17 km
2 h 5 m
€170-179
SHA · 14 km
LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2
4 h 50 m
€240-288
CAI · 17 km
11 h 30 m
€528-630
1 stop
PVG · 33 km
Abu DhabiAUH
3 h 30 m
€191-269
1 stop
CAI · 17 km
8 h 20 m
no fares
PVG · 33 km
New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA
11 h 15 m
€624-1013
1 stop
CAI · 17 km
14 h 40 m
no fares
PVG · 33 km

The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-10 to 2026-12, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.

Before you go

MeasureCairoShanghai
Official languageArabicPutonghua
CurrencyEgyptian Pound (EGP)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+8
Emergency numberPolice 122, ambulance 123, fire 180Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation23 m4 m
Main airportCairo International Airport (CAI)17 km from centre127 non-stop destinationsShanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)33 km from centre208 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureCairoShanghai
City population9,801,53624,870,895
People per km²18,5643,922
Museums within 10 km4844
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C-5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cairo or Shanghai somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Typical fares from Travelpayouts (Aviasales data). Route-level air passenger statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate and flight figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-27. Typical prices can be up to 7 days old. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.