VacationSelector
Turquoise water off Giftun Island, Hurghada
HurghadaTurquoise water off Giftun Island
Palms on a white beach at Cap Cana, Punta Cana
Punta CanaPalms on a white beach at Cap Cana

Photos: Hurghada by Andrey Korchagin, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Punta Cana by Mary Mark Ockerbloom, CC0.

Hurghada or Punta Cana?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

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

Choose Punta Cana for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Punta Cana’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, Punta Cana 94: Punta Cana leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Hurghada 34, Punta Cana 30: Hurghada leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Hurghada 14, Punta Cana 8: Hurghada leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Hurghada and Punta Cana are level on 40.
Nature & outdoors. Hurghada 72, Punta Cana 52: Hurghada leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Hurghada 30, Punta Cana 35: Punta Cana leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Hurghada 62, Punta Cana 68: Punta Cana leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Hurghada 22, Punta Cana 15: Hurghada leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Hurghada 24, Punta Cana 30: Punta Cana leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Hurghada 80, Punta Cana 44: Hurghada leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hurghada 10, Punta Cana 15: Punta Cana leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hurghada 44, Punta Cana 52: Punta Cana leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hurghada and Punta Cana.

Your match

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

Hurghada
Best match
43match

Wins on prices and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Punta Cana
40match

Wins on beaches and wellness 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

Punta Cana in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
96 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
HurghadaPunta Cana

Where the figures come from

Punta Cana 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). Punta Cana: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Punta Cana (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHurghadaPunta Cana
Official languageArabicSpanish
CurrencyEgyptian Pound (EGP)Dominican Peso (DOP)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC-4
Emergency numberPolice 122, ambulance 123, fire 180911
Elevation11 m28 m
Main airportHurghada International Airport (HRG)9 km from centre111 non-stop destinationsPunta Cana International Airport (PUJ)1 km from centre93 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureHurghadaPunta Cana
City population214,247138,919
People per km²-292
Museums within 10 km10
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 Hurghada or Punta Cana 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. 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.