VacationSelector
The Campanile, Trinity College, Dublin
DublinThe Campanile, Trinity College
The lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh, Sharm el-Sheikh
Sharm el-SheikhThe lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh

Photos: Dublin by David Kernan, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Sharm el-Sheikh by Tanya Dedyukhina, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Dublin 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 Dublin for

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

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

Choose Sharm el-Sheikh for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • 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. Dublin 27, Sharm el-Sheikh 87: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 60 points.
Food & drink. Dublin 50, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: Dublin leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Dublin 64, Sharm el-Sheikh 12: Dublin leads by 52 points.
Nightlife. Dublin 62, Sharm el-Sheikh 42: Dublin leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Dublin 70, Sharm el-Sheikh 82: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Dublin 72, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: Dublin leads by 42 points.
Good for families. Dublin 57, Sharm el-Sheikh 62: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Dublin 66, Sharm el-Sheikh 22: Dublin leads by 44 points.
Shopping & style. Dublin 54, Sharm el-Sheikh 25: Dublin leads by 29 points.
Affordability. Dublin 20, Sharm el-Sheikh 74: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 54 points.
Live music & performing arts. Dublin 65, Sharm el-Sheikh 10: Dublin leads by 55 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Dublin 25, Sharm el-Sheikh 50: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 25 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Dublin and Sharm el-Sheikh.

Your match

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

Dublin
Best match
53match

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

Sharm el-Sheikh
44match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Dublin in July

20 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
15 °Csea
17 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
DublinSharm 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. Dublin: 1991-2020 normals, Dublin Airport (9.3 km from centre). Sharm el-Sheikh: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureDublinSharm el-Sheikh
Official languageEnglish, IrishArabic
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Egyptian Pound (EGP)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number112Police 122, ambulance 123, fire 180
Elevation20 m1 m
Main airportDublin Airport (DUB)9 km from centre200 non-stop destinationsSharm El Sheikh International Airport (SSH)16 km from centre112 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureDublinSharm el-Sheikh
City population592,71373,000
People per km²5,154-
Museums within 10 km401
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

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