VacationSelector
The junk Duk Ling in Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong
Hong KongThe junk Duk Ling in Victoria Harbour
The lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh, Sharm el-Sheikh
Sharm el-SheikhThe lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh

Photos: Hong Kong by LN9267, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Sharm el-Sheikh by Tanya Dedyukhina, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Hong Kong 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 Hong Kong for

  • getting around
  • shopping
  • food and drink

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

Choose Sharm el-Sheikh for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • 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. Hong Kong 50, Sharm el-Sheikh 87: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 37 points.
Food & drink. Hong Kong 90, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: Hong Kong leads by 60 points.
Culture & sights. Hong Kong 60, Sharm el-Sheikh 12: Hong Kong leads by 48 points.
Nightlife. Hong Kong 68, Sharm el-Sheikh 42: Hong Kong leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hong Kong 80, Sharm el-Sheikh 82: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Hong Kong 68, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: Hong Kong leads by 38 points.
Good for families. Hong Kong 75, Sharm el-Sheikh 62: Hong Kong leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Hong Kong 97, Sharm el-Sheikh 22: Hong Kong leads by 75 points.
Shopping & style. Hong Kong 88, Sharm el-Sheikh 25: Hong Kong leads by 63 points.
Affordability. Hong Kong 27, Sharm el-Sheikh 74: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 47 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hong Kong 55, Sharm el-Sheikh 10: Hong Kong leads by 45 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hong Kong 42, Sharm el-Sheikh 50: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hong Kong and Sharm el-Sheikh.

Your match

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

Hong Kong
Best match
67match

Wins on getting around and shopping with your weighting.

Sharm el-Sheikh
44match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Hong Kong in July

31 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
381 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 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

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Hong KongSharm 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. Hong Kong: 1991-2020 normals, King's Park (4.4 km from centre). Sharm el-Sheikh: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureHong KongSharm el-Sheikh
Official languageStandard ChineseArabic
CurrencyHong Kong Dollar (HKD)Egyptian Pound (EGP)
SocketsG220 V, 50 HzCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number999Police 122, ambulance 123, fire 180
Elevation7 m1 m
Main airportHong Kong International Airport (HKG)25 km from centre148 non-stop destinationsSharm El Sheikh International Airport (SSH)16 km from centre112 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureHong KongSharm el-Sheikh
City population7,413,07073,000
Museums within 10 km391
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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