VacationSelector
Turquoise water off Giftun Island, Hurghada
HurghadaTurquoise water off Giftun Island
The White Tower from the promenade, Thessaloniki
ThessalonikiThe White Tower from the promenade

Photos: Hurghada by Andrey Korchagin, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Thessaloniki by Destinygreece, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Hurghada or Thessaloniki?

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
  • prices
  • families

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

Choose Thessaloniki for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Thessaloniki’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, Thessaloniki 55: Hurghada leads by 29 points.
Food & drink. Hurghada 34, Thessaloniki 77: Thessaloniki leads by 43 points.
Culture & sights. Hurghada 14, Thessaloniki 73: Thessaloniki leads by 59 points.
Nightlife. Hurghada 40, Thessaloniki 76: Thessaloniki leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hurghada 72, Thessaloniki 66: Hurghada leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Hurghada 30, Thessaloniki 74: Thessaloniki leads by 44 points.
Good for families. Hurghada 62, Thessaloniki 50: Hurghada leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Hurghada 22, Thessaloniki 60: Thessaloniki leads by 38 points.
Shopping & style. Hurghada 24, Thessaloniki 50: Thessaloniki leads by 26 points.
Affordability. Hurghada 80, Thessaloniki 66: Hurghada leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hurghada 10, Thessaloniki 52: Thessaloniki leads by 42 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hurghada 44, Thessaloniki 33: Hurghada leads by 11 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hurghada and Thessaloniki.

Your match

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

Hurghada
43match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Thessaloniki
Best match
61match

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
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Thessaloniki in July

32 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0204060JFMAMJJASOND
HurghadaThessaloniki

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Hurghada: 1991-2020 normals, Hurguada (15.2 km from centre). Thessaloniki: 1991-2020 normals, Thessaloniki Airport (14 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHurghadaThessaloniki
Official languageArabicGreek
CurrencyEgyptian Pound (EGP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 122, ambulance 123, fire 180112
Elevation11 m6 m
Main airportHurghada International Airport (HRG)9 km from centre111 non-stop destinationsThessaloniki Macedonia International Airport (SKG)14 km from centre90 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureHurghadaThessaloniki
City population214,247309,617
People per km²-16,042
Museums within 10 km132
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Hurghada or Thessaloniki 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.