VacationSelector
The Iguazu Falls in the green jungle, Puerto Iguazu
Puerto IguazuThe Iguazu Falls in the green jungle
The lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh, Sharm el-Sheikh
Sharm el-SheikhThe lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh

Photos: Puerto Iguazu by Muhammed Ballan, Pexels License; Sharm el-Sheikh by Tanya Dedyukhina, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Puerto Iguazu 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 Puerto Iguazu for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

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

Choose Sharm el-Sheikh for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • 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. Puerto Iguazu 5, Sharm el-Sheikh 87: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 82 points.
Food & drink. Puerto Iguazu 28, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Puerto Iguazu 9, Sharm el-Sheikh 12: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Puerto Iguazu 14, Sharm el-Sheikh 42: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Puerto Iguazu 95, Sharm el-Sheikh 82: Puerto Iguazu leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Puerto Iguazu 33, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: Puerto Iguazu leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Puerto Iguazu 55, Sharm el-Sheikh 62: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Puerto Iguazu 54, Sharm el-Sheikh 22: Puerto Iguazu leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. Puerto Iguazu 17, Sharm el-Sheikh 25: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Puerto Iguazu 48, Sharm el-Sheikh 74: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. Puerto Iguazu 7, Sharm el-Sheikh 10: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Puerto Iguazu 34, Sharm el-Sheikh 50: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 16 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Puerto Iguazu and Sharm el-Sheikh.

Your match

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

Puerto Iguazu
33match

Wins on getting around and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Sharm el-Sheikh
Best match
44match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Puerto Iguazu in July

22 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
103 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
No seasea
11 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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Puerto IguazuSharm 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. Puerto Iguazu: 1991-2020 normals, Iguazu Aerodrome (17.8 km from centre). Sharm el-Sheikh: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasurePuerto IguazuSharm el-Sheikh
Official languageSpanishArabic
CurrencyArgentine Peso (ARS)Egyptian Pound (EGP)
SocketsCI220 V, 50 HzCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number117 or 911Police 122, ambulance 123, fire 180
Elevation162 m1 m
Main airportCataratas Del Iguazú International Airport (IGR)18 km from centre8 non-stop destinationsSharm El Sheikh International Airport (SSH)16 km from centre112 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasurePuerto IguazuSharm el-Sheikh
City population54,90373,000
Museums within 10 km01
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 Puerto Iguazu 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). 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.