VacationSelector
The cathedral from Piazza del Duomo, Milan
MilanThe cathedral from Piazza del Duomo
The lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh, Sharm el-Sheikh
Sharm el-SheikhThe lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh

Photos: Milan by Jiuguang Wang, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Sharm el-Sheikh by Tanya Dedyukhina, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Milan 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 Milan for

  • live music and the arts
  • shopping
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Sharm el-Sheikh for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • 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. Milan 20, Sharm el-Sheikh 87: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 67 points.
Food & drink. Milan 78, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: Milan leads by 48 points.
Culture & sights. Milan 78, Sharm el-Sheikh 12: Milan leads by 66 points.
Nightlife. Milan 66, Sharm el-Sheikh 42: Milan leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Milan 65, Sharm el-Sheikh 82: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Milan 91, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: Milan leads by 61 points.
Good for families. Milan 55, Sharm el-Sheikh 62: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Milan 79, Sharm el-Sheikh 22: Milan leads by 57 points.
Shopping & style. Milan 92, Sharm el-Sheikh 25: Milan leads by 67 points.
Affordability. Milan 33, Sharm el-Sheikh 74: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 41 points.
Live music & performing arts. Milan 82, Sharm el-Sheikh 10: Milan leads by 72 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Milan 42, Sharm el-Sheikh 50: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Milan and Sharm el-Sheikh.

Your match

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

Milan
Best match
65match

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

Sharm el-Sheikh
44match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Milan in July

30 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
70 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 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
MilanSharm el-Sheikh

Where the figures come from

Milan 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.

Milan's sunshine is measured 41 km from the centre, at Novara / Cameri.

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. Milan: 1991-2020 normals, Milano / Linate (8 km from centre). Sharm el-Sheikh: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureMilanSharm el-Sheikh
Official languageItalianArabic
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Egyptian Pound (EGP)
SocketsCFL230 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
Elevation138 m1 m
Main airportMilan Malpensa International Airport (MXP)40 km from centre208 non-stop destinationsSharm El Sheikh International Airport (SSH)16 km from centre112 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureMilanSharm el-Sheikh
City population1,354,19673,000
People per km²7,453-
Museums within 10 km881
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km40
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 Milan 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). 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. 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.