VacationSelector
Main Beach with its palms and lifeguard tower, Laguna Beach
Laguna BeachMain Beach with its palms and lifeguard tower
The lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh, Sharm el-Sheikh
Sharm el-SheikhThe lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh

Photos: Laguna Beach by Mark Stebnicki, Pexels License; Sharm el-Sheikh by Tanya Dedyukhina, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Laguna Beach or Sharm el-Sheikh?

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 Laguna Beach for

  • day trips
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

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

Choose Sharm el-Sheikh for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Sharm el-Sheikh’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. Laguna Beach 72, Sharm el-Sheikh 87: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Laguna Beach 40, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: Laguna Beach leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Laguna Beach 27, Sharm el-Sheikh 12: Laguna Beach leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Laguna Beach 18, Sharm el-Sheikh 42: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Laguna Beach 73, Sharm el-Sheikh 82: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Laguna Beach 72, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: Laguna Beach leads by 42 points.
Good for families. Laguna Beach 68, Sharm el-Sheikh 62: Laguna Beach leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Laguna Beach 33, Sharm el-Sheikh 22: Laguna Beach leads by 11 points.
Shopping & style. Laguna Beach 46, Sharm el-Sheikh 25: Laguna Beach leads by 21 points.
Affordability. Laguna Beach 12, Sharm el-Sheikh 74: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 62 points.
Live music & performing arts. Laguna Beach 40, Sharm el-Sheikh 10: Laguna Beach leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Laguna Beach 47, Sharm el-Sheikh 50: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Laguna Beach and Sharm el-Sheikh.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Laguna Beach
46match

Wins on day trips and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Sharm el-Sheikh
44match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Laguna Beach in July

28 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Sharm el-Sheikh in July

38 °Cdaytime high
28 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
Laguna BeachSharm el-Sheikh

Where the figures come from

Sharm el-Sheikh 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. Laguna Beach: 1981-2010 normals, Irvine (15.5 km from centre). Sharm el-Sheikh: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureLaguna BeachSharm el-Sheikh
Official language-Arabic
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Egyptian Pound (EGP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number911Police 122, ambulance 123, fire 180
Elevation6 m1 m
Main airportJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)18 km from centre53 non-stop destinationsSharm El Sheikh International Airport (SSH)16 km from centre112 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureLaguna BeachSharm el-Sheikh
City population23,03273,000
People per km²907-
Museums within 10 km21
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Laguna Beach or Sharm el-Sheikh 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). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.

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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.