VacationSelector
Galway Cathedral from the River Corrib, Galway
GalwayGalway Cathedral from the River Corrib
Turquoise water off Giftun Island, Hurghada
HurghadaTurquoise water off Giftun Island

Photos: Galway by Dieglop, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Hurghada by Andrey Korchagin, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Galway 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 Galway for

  • live music and the arts
  • getting around
  • day trips

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

Choose Hurghada for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • families

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. Galway 28, Hurghada 84: Hurghada leads by 56 points.
Food & drink. Galway 45, Hurghada 34: Galway leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Galway 33, Hurghada 14: Galway leads by 19 points.
Nightlife. Galway 50, Hurghada 40: Galway leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Galway 78, Hurghada 72: Galway leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Galway 56, Hurghada 30: Galway leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Galway 42, Hurghada 62: Hurghada leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Galway 58, Hurghada 22: Galway leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Galway 38, Hurghada 24: Galway leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Galway 28, Hurghada 80: Hurghada leads by 52 points.
Live music & performing arts. Galway 57, Hurghada 10: Galway leads by 47 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Galway 28, Hurghada 44: Hurghada leads by 16 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Galway and Hurghada.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Galway
45match

Wins on live music and the arts and getting around 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.

Galway in July

20 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
GalwayHurghada

Where the figures come from

Galway's temperatures are measured 64 km from the centre, at Shannon Airport.

Galway 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Galway: 1991-2020 normals, Shannon Airport (64.2 km from centre). Hurghada: 1991-2020 normals, Hurguada (15.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGalwayHurghada
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
Elevation25 m11 m
Main airportShannon Airport (SNN)64 km from centre39 non-stop destinationsHurghada International Airport (HRG)9 km from centre111 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureGalwayHurghada
City population83,456214,247
People per km²1,563-
Museums within 10 km41
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Galway 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). 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. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.