VacationSelector
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens
Turquoise water off Giftun Island, Hurghada
HurghadaTurquoise water off Giftun Island

Photos: Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Hurghada by Andrey Korchagin, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Edinburgh or Hurghada?

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 Edinburgh for

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

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

Choose Hurghada for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Hurghada’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. Edinburgh 22, Hurghada 84: Hurghada leads by 62 points.
Food & drink. Edinburgh 53, Hurghada 34: Edinburgh leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Edinburgh 75, Hurghada 14: Edinburgh leads by 61 points.
Nightlife. Edinburgh 50, Hurghada 40: Edinburgh leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Edinburgh 75, Hurghada 72: Edinburgh leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Edinburgh 75, Hurghada 30: Edinburgh leads by 45 points.
Good for families. Edinburgh and Hurghada are level on 62.
Getting around. Edinburgh 74, Hurghada 22: Edinburgh leads by 52 points.
Shopping & style. Edinburgh 50, Hurghada 24: Edinburgh leads by 26 points.
Affordability. Edinburgh 30, Hurghada 80: Hurghada leads by 50 points.
Live music & performing arts. Edinburgh 72, Hurghada 10: Edinburgh leads by 62 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Edinburgh 34, Hurghada 44: Hurghada leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Edinburgh and Hurghada.

Your match

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

Edinburgh
Best match
56match

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

Hurghada
43match

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.

Edinburgh in July

19 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
66 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
14 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Hurghada in July

37 °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
EdinburghHurghada

Where the figures come from

Edinburgh has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Edinburgh's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at Leuchars.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Edinburgh: 1991-2020 normals, Edinburgh Airport (10 km from centre). Hurghada: 1991-2020 normals, Hurguada (15.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEdinburghHurghada
Official languageEnglishArabic
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Egyptian Pound (EGP)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999Police 122, ambulance 123, fire 180
Elevation47 m11 m
Main airportEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinationsHurghada International Airport (HRG)9 km from centre111 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureEdinburghHurghada
City population488,050214,247
People per km²1,884-
Museums within 10 km321
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
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 Edinburgh or Hurghada 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. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.