VacationSelector
The old town on the Neckar, Heidelberg
HeidelbergThe old town on the Neckar
The lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh, Sharm el-Sheikh
Sharm el-SheikhThe lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh

Photos: Heidelberg by Kuanling Chen, Pexels License; Sharm el-Sheikh by Tanya Dedyukhina, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Heidelberg 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 Heidelberg for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Sharm el-Sheikh for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Heidelberg 7, Sharm el-Sheikh 87: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 80 points.
Food & drink. Heidelberg 40, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: Heidelberg leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Heidelberg 58, Sharm el-Sheikh 12: Heidelberg leads by 46 points.
Nightlife. Heidelberg 38, Sharm el-Sheikh 42: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Heidelberg 60, Sharm el-Sheikh 82: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Heidelberg 78, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: Heidelberg leads by 48 points.
Good for families. Heidelberg and Sharm el-Sheikh are level on 62.
Getting around. Heidelberg 72, Sharm el-Sheikh 22: Heidelberg leads by 50 points.
Shopping & style. Heidelberg 40, Sharm el-Sheikh 25: Heidelberg leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Heidelberg 42, Sharm el-Sheikh 74: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Heidelberg 48, Sharm el-Sheikh 10: Heidelberg leads by 38 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Heidelberg 44, Sharm el-Sheikh 50: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Heidelberg and Sharm el-Sheikh.

Your match

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

Heidelberg
Best match
49match

Wins on getting around 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.

Heidelberg in July

26 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
80 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 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

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
HeidelbergSharm 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. Heidelberg: 1991-2020 normals, Heidelberg (4.5 km from centre). Sharm el-Sheikh: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureHeidelbergSharm el-Sheikh
Official languageGermanArabic
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Egyptian Pound (EGP)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number112Police 122, ambulance 123, fire 180
Elevation114 m1 m
Main airportFrankfurt Main Airport (FRA)69 km from centre281 non-stop destinationsSharm El Sheikh International Airport (SSH)16 km from centre112 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureHeidelbergSharm el-Sheikh
City population156,09273,000
People per km²1,433-
Museums within 10 km171
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km40
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Heidelberg 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.