VacationSelector
Waterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor, Newport Beach
Newport BeachWaterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor
The lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh, Sharm el-Sheikh
Sharm el-SheikhThe lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh

Photos: Newport Beach by Don Ramey Logan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Sharm el-Sheikh by Tanya Dedyukhina, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Newport Beach 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 Newport Beach for

  • day trips
  • shopping
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Sharm el-Sheikh for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • 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. Newport Beach 70, Sharm el-Sheikh 87: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 17 points.
Food & drink. Newport Beach 50, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: Newport Beach leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Newport Beach 20, Sharm el-Sheikh 12: Newport Beach leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Newport Beach 33, Sharm el-Sheikh 42: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 9 points.
Nature & outdoors. Newport Beach 66, Sharm el-Sheikh 82: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Newport Beach 70, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: Newport Beach leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Newport Beach 80, Sharm el-Sheikh 62: Newport Beach leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Newport Beach 20, Sharm el-Sheikh 22: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Newport Beach 62, Sharm el-Sheikh 25: Newport Beach leads by 37 points.
Affordability. Newport Beach 15, Sharm el-Sheikh 74: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 59 points.
Live music & performing arts. Newport Beach 46, Sharm el-Sheikh 10: Newport Beach leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Newport Beach 44, Sharm el-Sheikh 50: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Newport Beach and Sharm el-Sheikh.

Your match

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

Newport Beach
Best match
48match

Wins on day trips and shopping 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.

Newport Beach in July

26 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Sharm el-Sheikh in July

38 °Cdaytime high
28 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
Newport BeachSharm 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. Newport Beach: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1981-2010) normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (7.1 km from centre). Sharm el-Sheikh: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureNewport BeachSharm el-Sheikh
Official language-Arabic
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Egyptian Pound (EGP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number911Police 122, ambulance 123, fire 180
Elevation3 m1 m
Main airportJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)7 km from centre53 non-stop destinationsSharm El Sheikh International Airport (SSH)16 km from centre112 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureNewport BeachSharm el-Sheikh
City population85,23973,000
People per km²622-
Museums within 10 km41
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Newport Beach 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.