VacationSelector
Turquoise water off Giftun Island, Hurghada
HurghadaTurquoise water off Giftun Island
The Plaza de los Naranjos and its fountain in the old town, Marbella
MarbellaThe Plaza de los Naranjos and its fountain in the old town

Photos: Hurghada by Andrey Korchagin, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Marbella by Décio Franchini, Pexels License.

Hurghada or Marbella?

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 Hurghada for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Marbella for

  • day trips
  • shopping
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Marbella’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. Hurghada 84, Marbella 76: Hurghada leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Hurghada 34, Marbella 60: Marbella leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Hurghada 14, Marbella 32: Marbella leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Hurghada 40, Marbella 64: Marbella leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hurghada 72, Marbella 70: Hurghada leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Hurghada 30, Marbella 77: Marbella leads by 47 points.
Good for families. Hurghada 62, Marbella 70: Marbella leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Hurghada 22, Marbella 38: Marbella leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Hurghada 24, Marbella 58: Marbella leads by 34 points.
Affordability. Hurghada 80, Marbella 30: Hurghada leads by 50 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hurghada 10, Marbella 30: Marbella leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hurghada 44, Marbella 52: Marbella leads by 8 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hurghada and Marbella.

Your match

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

Hurghada
43match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

Marbella
Best match
55match

Wins on day trips and shopping with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Marbella in July

31 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
HurghadaMarbella

Where the figures come from

Marbella's temperatures are measured 40 km from the centre, at Malaga / Aeropuerto.

Marbella 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. Hurghada: 1991-2020 normals, Hurguada (15.2 km from centre). Marbella: 1991-2020 normals, Malaga / Aeropuerto (39.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHurghadaMarbella
Official languageArabicSpanish
CurrencyEgyptian Pound (EGP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 122, ambulance 123, fire 180112
Elevation11 m22 m
Main airportHurghada International Airport (HRG)9 km from centre111 non-stop destinationsMálaga-Costa del Sol Airport (AGP)39 km from centre166 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureHurghadaMarbella
City population214,247159,786
People per km²-1,398
Museums within 10 km16
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Hurghada or Marbella 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). 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.