VacationSelector
The Old Town Clock on Citadel Hill, Halifax
HalifaxThe Old Town Clock on Citadel Hill
The lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh, Sharm el-Sheikh
Sharm el-SheikhThe lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh

Photos: Halifax by Danieljmacdonald, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Sharm el-Sheikh by Tanya Dedyukhina, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Halifax 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 Halifax for

  • live music and the arts
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Halifax’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. Halifax 32, Sharm el-Sheikh 87: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 55 points.
Food & drink. Halifax 50, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: Halifax leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Halifax 42, Sharm el-Sheikh 12: Halifax leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Halifax 46, Sharm el-Sheikh 42: Halifax leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Halifax 62, Sharm el-Sheikh 82: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Halifax 63, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: Halifax leads by 33 points.
Good for families. Halifax 55, Sharm el-Sheikh 62: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Halifax 48, Sharm el-Sheikh 22: Halifax leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Halifax 35, Sharm el-Sheikh 25: Halifax leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Halifax 38, Sharm el-Sheikh 74: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. Halifax 46, Sharm el-Sheikh 10: Halifax leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Halifax 28, Sharm el-Sheikh 50: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Halifax and Sharm el-Sheikh.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Halifax
45match

Wins on live music and the arts and day trips 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.

Halifax in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
101 mmrain in the month
14 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Sharm el-Sheikh in July

38 °Cdaytime high
28 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
HalifaxSharm 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. Halifax: 1991-2020 normals, Shearwater Airport (6 km from centre). Sharm el-Sheikh: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureHalifaxSharm el-Sheikh
Official languageFrench, EnglishArabic
CurrencyCanadian Dollar (CAD)Egyptian Pound (EGP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4, UTC-3 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number911Police 122, ambulance 123, fire 180
Elevation28 m1 m
Main airportHalifax / Stanfield International Airport (YHZ)26 km from centre40 non-stop destinationsSharm El Sheikh International Airport (SSH)16 km from centre112 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureHalifaxSharm el-Sheikh
City population440,07273,000
People per km²80-
Museums within 10 km151
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 Halifax 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). 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. 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.

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.