VacationSelector
Turquoise water off Giftun Island, Hurghada
HurghadaTurquoise water off Giftun Island
The lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park, Paphos
PaphosThe lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park

Photos: Hurghada by Andrey Korchagin, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Paphos by Nikodem Nijaki, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Hurghada or Paphos?

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
  • nightlife

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

Choose Paphos for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Paphos’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, Paphos 76: Hurghada leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Hurghada 34, Paphos 45: Paphos leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Hurghada 14, Paphos 62: Paphos leads by 48 points.
Nightlife. Hurghada 40, Paphos 38: Hurghada leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hurghada 72, Paphos 70: Hurghada leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Hurghada 30, Paphos 64: Paphos leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Hurghada 62, Paphos 68: Paphos leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Hurghada 22, Paphos 40: Paphos leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Hurghada 24, Paphos 25: Paphos leads by 1 points.
Affordability. Hurghada 80, Paphos 52: Hurghada leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hurghada 10, Paphos 22: Paphos leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hurghada 44, Paphos 42: Hurghada leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hurghada and Paphos.

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.

Paphos
Best match
50match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips 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
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Paphos in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
27 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
HurghadaPaphos

Where the figures come from

Paphos 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). Paphos: 1991-2020 normals, Paphos Airport (8.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHurghadaPaphos
Official languageArabicTurkish, Greek, Modern Greek
CurrencyEgyptian Pound (EGP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 122, ambulance 123, fire 180112
Elevation11 m72 m
Main airportHurghada International Airport (HRG)9 km from centre111 non-stop destinationsPaphos International Airport (PFO)8 km from centre58 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days17 days

By the numbers

MeasureHurghadaPaphos
City population214,24735,961
People per km²-1,987
Museums within 10 km14
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Hurghada or Paphos 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.