VacationSelector
Turquoise water off Giftun Island, Hurghada
HurghadaTurquoise water off Giftun Island
Angkor Wat beyond the palms of the causeway, Siem Reap
Siem ReapAngkor Wat beyond the palms of the causeway

Photos: Hurghada by Andrey Korchagin, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Siem Reap by allPhoto Bangkok, Pexels License.

Hurghada or Siem Reap?

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

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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

Choose Siem Reap for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Siem Reap’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, Siem Reap 5: Hurghada leads by 79 points.
Food & drink. Hurghada 34, Siem Reap 45: Siem Reap leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Hurghada 14, Siem Reap 88: Siem Reap leads by 74 points.
Nightlife. Hurghada 40, Siem Reap 42: Siem Reap leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hurghada 72, Siem Reap 40: Hurghada leads by 32 points.
Day trips. Hurghada 30, Siem Reap 55: Siem Reap leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Hurghada 62, Siem Reap 35: Hurghada leads by 27 points.
Getting around. Hurghada 22, Siem Reap 30: Siem Reap leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Hurghada 24, Siem Reap 38: Siem Reap leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Hurghada 80, Siem Reap 88: Siem Reap leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hurghada 10, Siem Reap 32: Siem Reap leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hurghada 44, Siem Reap 60: Siem Reap leads by 16 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hurghada and Siem Reap.

Your match

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

Hurghada
43match

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

Siem Reap
Best match
47match

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

Siem Reap in July

30 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
197 mmrain in the month
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
HurghadaSiem Reap

Where the figures come from

Siem Reap has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Hurghada: 1991-2020 normals, Hurguada (15.2 km from centre). Siem Reap: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureHurghadaSiem Reap
Official languageArabicKhmer
CurrencyEgyptian Pound (EGP)Riel (KHR)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzACG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+7
Emergency numberPolice 122, ambulance 123, fire 180Police 117, ambulance 119, fire 118
Elevation11 m18 m
Main airportHurghada International Airport (HRG)9 km from centre111 non-stop destinationsSiem Reap-Angkor International Airport (SAI)39 km from centre14 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureHurghadaSiem Reap
City population214,247147,866
Museums within 10 km16
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Hurghada or Siem Reap 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.