VacationSelector
Palms on Waikiki Beach, Honolulu
HonoluluPalms on Waikiki Beach
The lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh, Sharm el-Sheikh
Sharm el-SheikhThe lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh

Photos: Honolulu by Jess Loiterton, Pexels License; Sharm el-Sheikh by Tanya Dedyukhina, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Honolulu 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 Honolulu for

  • culture and sights
  • food and drink
  • shopping

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

Choose Sharm el-Sheikh for

  • prices

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. Honolulu 91, Sharm el-Sheikh 87: Honolulu leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Honolulu 70, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: Honolulu leads by 40 points.
Culture & sights. Honolulu 55, Sharm el-Sheikh 12: Honolulu leads by 43 points.
Nightlife. Honolulu 45, Sharm el-Sheikh 42: Honolulu leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Honolulu 88, Sharm el-Sheikh 82: Honolulu leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Honolulu 38, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: Honolulu leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Honolulu 80, Sharm el-Sheikh 62: Honolulu leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Honolulu 52, Sharm el-Sheikh 22: Honolulu leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Honolulu 60, Sharm el-Sheikh 25: Honolulu leads by 35 points.
Affordability. Honolulu 15, Sharm el-Sheikh 74: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 59 points.
Live music & performing arts. Honolulu 40, Sharm el-Sheikh 10: Honolulu leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Honolulu and Sharm el-Sheikh are level on 50.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Honolulu and Sharm el-Sheikh.

Your match

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

Honolulu
Best match
57match

Wins on culture and sights and food and drink with your weighting.

Sharm el-Sheikh
44match

Wins on prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Honolulu in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
26 °Csea
13 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

0204060JFMAMJJASOND
HonoluluSharm 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. Honolulu: 1991-2020 normals, Honolulu International Airport (10.1 km from centre). Sharm el-Sheikh: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureHonoluluSharm el-Sheikh
Official language-Arabic
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Egyptian Pound (EGP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-10UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number911Police 122, ambulance 123, fire 180
Elevation12 m1 m
Main airportDaniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL)7 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsSharm El Sheikh International Airport (SSH)16 km from centre112 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureHonoluluSharm el-Sheikh
City population350,96473,000
People per km²1,981-
Museums within 10 km121
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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