VacationSelector
Turquoise water off Giftun Island, Hurghada
HurghadaTurquoise water off Giftun Island
Punta del Este

Photos: Hurghada by Andrey Korchagin, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Hurghada or Punta del Este?

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
  • beaches

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

Choose Punta del Este for

  • nightlife
  • shopping
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Punta del Este’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 del Este 72: Hurghada leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Hurghada 34, Punta del Este 45: Punta del Este leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Hurghada 14, Punta del Este 22: Punta del Este leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Hurghada 40, Punta del Este 60: Punta del Este leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hurghada 72, Punta del Este 55: Hurghada leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Hurghada 30, Punta del Este 45: Punta del Este leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Hurghada 62, Punta del Este 55: Hurghada leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Hurghada 22, Punta del Este 35: Punta del Este leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Hurghada 24, Punta del Este 42: Punta del Este leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Hurghada 80, Punta del Este 20: Hurghada leads by 60 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hurghada 10, Punta del Este 22: Punta del Este leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hurghada 44, Punta del Este 32: Hurghada leads by 12 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Hurghada
43match

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

Punta del Este
42match

Wins on nightlife 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

Punta del Este in July

15 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
101 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
HurghadaPunta del Este

Where the figures come from

Punta del Este's temperatures are measured 79 km from the centre, at Rocha.

Punta del Este 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 del Este: 1991-2020 normals, Rocha (78.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHurghadaPunta del Este
Official languageArabic-
CurrencyEgyptian Pound (EGP)Peso Uruguayo (UYU)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzCFIL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC-3
Emergency numberPolice 122, ambulance 123, fire 180911
Elevation11 m11 m
Main airportHurghada International Airport (HRG)9 km from centre111 non-stop destinationsCapitan Corbeta CA Curbelo International Airport (PDP)18 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureHurghadaPunta del Este
City population214,2479,277
People per km²-455
Museums within 10 km15
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 Punta del Este 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.