VacationSelector
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Los Angeles
Los AngelesThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier
The lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh, Sharm el-Sheikh
Sharm el-SheikhThe lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh

Photos: Los Angeles by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Sharm el-Sheikh by Tanya Dedyukhina, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Los Angeles 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 Los Angeles for

  • live music and the arts
  • shopping
  • food and drink

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

Choose Sharm el-Sheikh for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • 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. Los Angeles 60, Sharm el-Sheikh 87: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 27 points.
Food & drink. Los Angeles 84, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: Los Angeles leads by 54 points.
Culture & sights. Los Angeles 66, Sharm el-Sheikh 12: Los Angeles leads by 54 points.
Nightlife. Los Angeles 67, Sharm el-Sheikh 42: Los Angeles leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Los Angeles 80, Sharm el-Sheikh 82: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Los Angeles 60, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: Los Angeles leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Los Angeles 84, Sharm el-Sheikh 62: Los Angeles leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Los Angeles 25, Sharm el-Sheikh 22: Los Angeles leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Los Angeles 80, Sharm el-Sheikh 25: Los Angeles leads by 55 points.
Affordability. Los Angeles 24, Sharm el-Sheikh 74: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 50 points.
Live music & performing arts. Los Angeles 83, Sharm el-Sheikh 10: Los Angeles leads by 73 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Los Angeles 60, Sharm el-Sheikh 50: Los Angeles leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Los Angeles and Sharm el-Sheikh.

Your match

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

Los Angeles
Best match
64match

Wins on live music and the arts and shopping with your weighting.

Sharm el-Sheikh
44match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Los Angeles in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °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

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
Los AngelesSharm 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. Los Angeles: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (18.5 km from centre). Sharm el-Sheikh: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureLos AngelesSharm 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
Elevation106 m1 m
Main airportLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)19 km from centre177 non-stop destinationsSharm El Sheikh International Airport (SSH)16 km from centre112 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureLos AngelesSharm el-Sheikh
City population3,898,74773,000
People per km²2,994-
Museums within 10 km391
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Los Angeles 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.