VacationSelector
Big Ben and Westminster Bridge, London
LondonBig Ben and Westminster Bridge
The lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh, Sharm el-Sheikh
Sharm el-SheikhThe lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh

Photos: London by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Sharm el-Sheikh by Tanya Dedyukhina, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

London 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 London for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

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

Choose Sharm el-Sheikh for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

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. London 25, Sharm el-Sheikh 87: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 62 points.
Food & drink. London 84, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: London leads by 54 points.
Culture & sights. London 94, Sharm el-Sheikh 12: London leads by 82 points.
Nightlife. London 88, Sharm el-Sheikh 42: London leads by 46 points.
Nature & outdoors. London 57, Sharm el-Sheikh 82: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 25 points.
Day trips. London 90, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: London leads by 60 points.
Good for families. London 82, Sharm el-Sheikh 62: London leads by 20 points.
Getting around. London 85, Sharm el-Sheikh 22: London leads by 63 points.
Shopping & style. London 95, Sharm el-Sheikh 25: London leads by 70 points.
Affordability. London 15, Sharm el-Sheikh 74: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 59 points.
Live music & performing arts. London 98, Sharm el-Sheikh 10: London leads by 88 points.
Wellness & relaxation. London 40, Sharm el-Sheikh 50: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 10 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: London and Sharm el-Sheikh.

Your match

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

London
Best match
71match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights with your weighting.

Sharm el-Sheikh
44match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

London in July

23 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Sharm el-Sheikh in July

38 °Cdaytime high
28 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
LondonSharm 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. London: 1992-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, London Weather Centre (1.3 km from centre). Sharm el-Sheikh: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureLondonSharm el-Sheikh
Official languageEnglishArabic
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Egyptian Pound (EGP)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999Police 122, ambulance 123, fire 180
Elevation4 m1 m
Main airportLondon Heathrow Airport (LHR)23 km from centre224 non-stop destinationsSharm El Sheikh International Airport (SSH)16 km from centre112 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureLondonSharm el-Sheikh
City population8,799,72873,000
People per km²5,598-
Museums within 10 km2161
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km40
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow London 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.