VacationSelector
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss
The lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh, Sharm el-Sheikh
Sharm el-SheikhThe lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh

Photos: Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License; Sharm el-Sheikh by Tanya Dedyukhina, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Lucerne 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 Lucerne for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

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

Choose Sharm el-Sheikh for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • nightlife

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. Lucerne 35, Sharm el-Sheikh 87: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 52 points.
Food & drink. Lucerne 35, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: Lucerne leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Lucerne 58, Sharm el-Sheikh 12: Lucerne leads by 46 points.
Nightlife. Lucerne 28, Sharm el-Sheikh 42: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lucerne 92, Sharm el-Sheikh 82: Lucerne leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Lucerne 78, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: Lucerne leads by 48 points.
Good for families. Lucerne 66, Sharm el-Sheikh 62: Lucerne leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Lucerne 86, Sharm el-Sheikh 22: Lucerne leads by 64 points.
Shopping & style. Lucerne 46, Sharm el-Sheikh 25: Lucerne leads by 21 points.
Affordability. Lucerne 8, Sharm el-Sheikh 74: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 66 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lucerne 66, Sharm el-Sheikh 10: Lucerne leads by 56 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lucerne 46, Sharm el-Sheikh 50: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lucerne and Sharm el-Sheikh.

Your match

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

Lucerne
Best match
54match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts 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.

Lucerne in July

24 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
141 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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
LucerneSharm el-Sheikh

Where the figures come from

Lucerne has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Lucerne's sunshine is measured 42 km from the centre, at Zurich Town / Ville..

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. Lucerne: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Emmen (4.2 km from centre). Sharm el-Sheikh: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureLucerneSharm el-Sheikh
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshArabic
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)Egyptian Pound (EGP)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number112Police 122, ambulance 123, fire 180
Elevation436 m1 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsSharm El Sheikh International Airport (SSH)16 km from centre112 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureLucerneSharm el-Sheikh
City population86,23473,000
People per km²2,963-
Museums within 10 km141
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 Lucerne 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.