Hurghada or Sharm el-Sheikh?

Both resorts give you warm, clear Red Sea water from hotel-owned beaches, so what differs is the swimming itself. In Hurghada, the reef flats in front of many hotels mean you swim from a jetty, and beaches in the town centre can be small artificial bays. The best sand is a boat ride away on the Giftun islands or down the coast at Makadi and Sahl Hasheesh, and the north wind often makes the water choppy in the afternoon.

In Sharm el-Sheikh, the jetties at Sharks Bay, Ras Um Sid and Nabq take you over the reef flat to a drop-off where the coral starts almost at once. That makes snorkelling straight off your sunbed the best part of a day on the beach. Naama Bay is the one ordinary sandy bay, and reef shoes are worth packing.

In both places the hotel buffet decides most meals, and the good food beyond it is simple Egyptian cooking. Hurghada has the fishing harbour, where you pick your fish from the ice and have it grilled or fried, and the old streets of El Dahar for koshary and grilled meats.

Sharm el-Sheikh's version of this is the Old Market, with grilled fish and taameya and mint tea and shisha late into the night. It adds the Bedouin dinner under the stars as an outing of its own.

Neither resort has much history of its own. Hurghada has the one real museum between them, the Hurghada Museum, with pharaonic pieces from the national collections. A walk through El Dahar's market streets shows you the ordinary Egyptian town behind the hotels.

Sharm el-Sheikh has two landmarks and no museum of note: the Al Sahaba Mosque, lit up at night in the Old Market, and the painted interior of the Heavenly Cathedral. Each is worth a short visit.

Both offer a night out at the resort, made for visitors, and many guests never go further than the lobby bar. Hurghada's centres are Sheraton Road in Sakkala and the marina, where big beach clubs and themed or foam parties keep going into the small hours.

Sharm el-Sheikh puts its bars and few large clubs along the Naama Bay promenade, with DJ nights at beach bars. The Old Market stays up late with cafés and shisha rather than drinking. Outside the peak periods it goes noticeably quiet.

Both are first-class reef destinations, but Sharm el-Sheikh has the better reefs. Ras Mohammed National Park, about 30km away, has sheer walls and huge schools of fish, and the Thistlegorm wreck lies nearby. The Tiran Strait reefs are a short boat ride out, and on land you get South Sinai's red granite peaks, the Nabq mangroves and the long excursion to Mount Sinai.

Hurghada's reefs around the Giftun islands still have turtles, dolphins and the odd dugong, as well as well-known wrecks and walls. Its own strength is the wind: El Gouna and Soma Bay are among the best kitesurfing spots on the coast. The bare mountains behind the town are mainly for quad bikes and stargazing.

Both towns have only a few excursions, and the one big trip from each is a long day. From Hurghada it is Luxor, with Karnak and the Valley of the Kings about four hours away by road. That is reason enough to stay a night. Closer to town there is the marina at El Gouna and a guided trip to the Roman granite quarries.

Sharm el-Sheikh's major trip is St Catherine's Monastery, about three hours away, often combined with a night climb of Mount Sinai to see the sunrise. Dahab, about an hour away, makes an easy day out.

Each works well for a week at a resort with children, and the hotel you choose matters more than the town. Hurghada has a little more beyond the hotel gates: an aquarium, semi-submarine and dolphin-watching boats, and several large hotels with full water parks.

Sharm el-Sheikh's calm, shallow lagoons are lovely for a first snorkelling lesson, but outside the hotels there is little made for children. In both, midsummer is too hot for small children around midday.

You get around both in much the same way: taxis with the fare agreed first, shared minibuses on the main road, hotel shuttles and excursions that pick you up. Hurghada's hotel strip runs for tens of kilometres, and only the marina and parts of Sakkala are walkable. Busy main-road crossings make that harder.

Sharm el-Sheikh stretches about 30km from the Old Market to Nabq. Naama Bay is the one stretch that is pleasant on foot.

Shopping in both means souvenirs bought with hard haggling: spices, papyrus, alabaster, perfume oils and galabeyas. Hurghada's bargaining happens in El Dahar's market streets, and its malls on the main road have supermarkets for anyone self-catering. Sharm el-Sheikh's Old Market and Naama Bay promenade add Bedouin-style jewellery to the usual mix.

Hurghada is the cheaper of the two, and the saving starts with the booking. Its all-inclusive packages cover the room, meals and many drinks for less, and diving courses and boat trips out to the Giftun reefs cost well below what most reef coasts charge. Outside the hotel, a fish supper at the harbour or a meal in El Dahar costs very little. The money goes on marina restaurants, imported drinks and excursions bought at the hotel desk, which cost far more than the same trip booked in town.

Sharm el-Sheikh is still inexpensive by European resort standards, and its all-inclusive hotels often cost less than a basic Mediterranean room. Once you step outside, though, prices are set for visitors. Naama Bay restaurants charge close to European rates, every taxi is a negotiation, and a week of diving at Ras Mohammed and the Thistlegorm soon adds up. Cheap meals are mostly found in the Old Market, and you get the best value if you rarely leave the resort.

Neither has any theatre, concert hall or local music scene, so evening entertainment comes from hotel animation teams, belly dancing and spinning tanoura dancers in both. Hurghada usually puts these on at folklore evenings and desert-camp dinners. Sharm el-Sheikh also has large evening spectacles staged for package groups.

Sharm el-Sheikh is a little better for a restful stay. Almost every large resort has a spa with an Oriental bath and scrub-and-foam treatments, and the whole stay runs at an unhurried pace of pool, sea and winter sun.

Hurghada's resort spas offer much the same hammam, steam room and massage, sometimes with Red Sea salt rituals. Quality varies more from hotel to hotel, though, and once you leave the hotel the town is noisy and the sellers are pushy.