VacationSelector
The Metropolitan Cathedral on the Zócalo, Mexico City
Mexico CityThe Metropolitan Cathedral on the Zócalo
The lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh, Sharm el-Sheikh
Sharm el-SheikhThe lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh

Photos: Mexico City by Oscar Dominguez, Pexels License; Sharm el-Sheikh by Tanya Dedyukhina, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Mexico City 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 Mexico City for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink

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

Choose Sharm el-Sheikh for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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. Mexico City 5, Sharm el-Sheikh 87: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 82 points.
Food & drink. Mexico City 90, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: Mexico City leads by 60 points.
Culture & sights. Mexico City 88, Sharm el-Sheikh 12: Mexico City leads by 76 points.
Nightlife. Mexico City 80, Sharm el-Sheikh 42: Mexico City leads by 38 points.
Nature & outdoors. Mexico City 50, Sharm el-Sheikh 82: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 32 points.
Day trips. Mexico City 75, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: Mexico City leads by 45 points.
Good for families. Mexico City 58, Sharm el-Sheikh 62: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Mexico City 50, Sharm el-Sheikh 22: Mexico City leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. Mexico City 76, Sharm el-Sheikh 25: Mexico City leads by 51 points.
Affordability. Mexico City 75, Sharm el-Sheikh 74: Mexico City leads by 1 points.
Live music & performing arts. Mexico City 72, Sharm el-Sheikh 10: Mexico City leads by 62 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Mexico City 40, Sharm el-Sheikh 50: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Mexico City and Sharm el-Sheikh.

Your match

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

Mexico City
Best match
63match

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

Sharm el-Sheikh
44match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Mexico City in July

25 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
176 mmrain in the month
6 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

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Mexico CitySharm 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. Mexico City: 1991-2020 normals, Mexico Central, D. F. (7.9 km from centre). Sharm el-Sheikh: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureMexico CitySharm el-Sheikh
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaArabic
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Egyptian Pound (EGP)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number911Police 122, ambulance 123, fire 180
Elevation2,240 m1 m
Main airportMexico City Benito Juárez International Airport (MEX)7 km from centre109 non-stop destinationsSharm El Sheikh International Airport (SSH)16 km from centre112 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureMexico CitySharm el-Sheikh
City population9,209,94473,000
People per km²6,202-
Museums within 10 km1081
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km60
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 Mexico City 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.