VacationSelector
The railway viaduct over the canal, Castlefield, Manchester
ManchesterThe railway viaduct over the canal, Castlefield
The lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh, Sharm el-Sheikh
Sharm el-SheikhThe lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh

Photos: Manchester by IIya Kuzhekin, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Sharm el-Sheikh by Tanya Dedyukhina, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Manchester 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 Manchester for

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

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

Choose Sharm el-Sheikh for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • prices

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. Manchester 9, Sharm el-Sheikh 87: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 78 points.
Food & drink. Manchester 51, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: Manchester leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Manchester 50, Sharm el-Sheikh 12: Manchester leads by 38 points.
Nightlife. Manchester 72, Sharm el-Sheikh 42: Manchester leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Manchester 64, Sharm el-Sheikh 82: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Manchester 77, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: Manchester leads by 47 points.
Good for families. Manchester 58, Sharm el-Sheikh 62: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Manchester 68, Sharm el-Sheikh 22: Manchester leads by 46 points.
Shopping & style. Manchester 62, Sharm el-Sheikh 25: Manchester leads by 37 points.
Affordability. Manchester 42, Sharm el-Sheikh 74: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Manchester 74, Sharm el-Sheikh 10: Manchester leads by 64 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Manchester 15, Sharm el-Sheikh 50: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 35 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Manchester and Sharm el-Sheikh.

Your match

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

Manchester
Best match
54match

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

Sharm el-Sheikh
44match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Manchester in July

21 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
60 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
17 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

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
ManchesterSharm 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. Manchester: 1991-2020 normals, Manchester Airport (14.8 km from centre). Sharm el-Sheikh: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureManchesterSharm 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
Elevation38 m1 m
Main airportManchester Airport (MAN)15 km from centre211 non-stop destinationsSharm El Sheikh International Airport (SSH)16 km from centre112 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureManchesterSharm el-Sheikh
City population547,62773,000
People per km²4,737-
Museums within 10 km281
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
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 Manchester 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.