VacationSelector
Wat Xieng Thong temple, Luang Prabang
Luang PrabangWat Xieng Thong temple
The lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh, Sharm el-Sheikh
Sharm el-SheikhThe lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh

Photos: Luang Prabang by Basile Morin, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Sharm el-Sheikh by Tanya Dedyukhina, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Luang Prabang 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 Luang Prabang for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • shopping

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

Choose Sharm el-Sheikh for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • families

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. Luang Prabang 14, Sharm el-Sheikh 87: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 73 points.
Food & drink. Luang Prabang 42, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: Luang Prabang leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Luang Prabang 65, Sharm el-Sheikh 12: Luang Prabang leads by 53 points.
Nightlife. Luang Prabang 8, Sharm el-Sheikh 42: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 34 points.
Nature & outdoors. Luang Prabang 68, Sharm el-Sheikh 82: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Luang Prabang 35, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: Luang Prabang leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Luang Prabang 38, Sharm el-Sheikh 62: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 24 points.
Getting around. Luang Prabang 50, Sharm el-Sheikh 22: Luang Prabang leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. Luang Prabang 38, Sharm el-Sheikh 25: Luang Prabang leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Luang Prabang 80, Sharm el-Sheikh 74: Luang Prabang leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Luang Prabang 18, Sharm el-Sheikh 10: Luang Prabang leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Luang Prabang 60, Sharm el-Sheikh 50: Luang Prabang leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Luang Prabang 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, 1 point apart

Luang Prabang
43match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around with your weighting.

Sharm el-Sheikh
44match

Wins on beaches 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.

Luang Prabang in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
250 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
13 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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Luang PrabangSharm 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. Luang Prabang: 1991-2020 normals, Luang-Prabang (0.8 km from centre). Sharm el-Sheikh: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureLuang PrabangSharm el-Sheikh
Official languageLaoArabic
CurrencyLao Kip (LAK)Egyptian Pound (EGP)
SocketsABCEF230 V, 50 HzCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 195, fire 190Police 122, ambulance 123, fire 180
Elevation305 m1 m
Main airportLuang Phabang International Airport (LPQ)4 km from centre7 non-stop destinationsSharm El Sheikh International Airport (SSH)16 km from centre112 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-15 days

By the numbers

MeasureLuang PrabangSharm el-Sheikh
City population53,79273,000
Museums within 10 km01
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Luang Prabang 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.