VacationSelector
The Assembly Hall on Temple Square, Salt Lake City
Salt Lake CityThe Assembly Hall on Temple Square
The lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh, Sharm el-Sheikh
Sharm el-SheikhThe lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh

Photos: Salt Lake City by hakkun, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Sharm el-Sheikh by Tanya Dedyukhina, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Salt Lake 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 Salt Lake City for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

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

Choose Sharm el-Sheikh for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • nightlife

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. Salt Lake City 12, Sharm el-Sheikh 87: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 75 points.
Food & drink. Salt Lake City 40, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: Salt Lake City leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Salt Lake City 42, Sharm el-Sheikh 12: Salt Lake City leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Salt Lake City 30, Sharm el-Sheikh 42: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Salt Lake City 90, Sharm el-Sheikh 82: Salt Lake City leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Salt Lake City 34, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: Salt Lake City leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Salt Lake City 72, Sharm el-Sheikh 62: Salt Lake City leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Salt Lake City 42, Sharm el-Sheikh 22: Salt Lake City leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Salt Lake City 36, Sharm el-Sheikh 25: Salt Lake City leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Salt Lake City 40, Sharm el-Sheikh 74: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 34 points.
Live music & performing arts. Salt Lake City 55, Sharm el-Sheikh 10: Salt Lake City leads by 45 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Salt Lake City 38, Sharm el-Sheikh 50: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Salt Lake City and Sharm el-Sheikh.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Salt Lake City
44match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights 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.

Salt Lake City in July

34 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 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

0204060JFMAMJJASOND
Salt Lake 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. Salt Lake City: 1991-2020 normals, Salt Lake City International Airport (7.9 km from centre). Sharm el-Sheikh: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureSalt Lake CitySharm el-Sheikh
Official language-Arabic
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Egyptian Pound (EGP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number911Police 122, ambulance 123, fire 180
Elevation1,288 m1 m
Main airportSalt Lake City International Airport (SLC)9 km from centre108 non-stop destinationsSharm El Sheikh International Airport (SSH)16 km from centre112 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureSalt Lake CitySharm el-Sheikh
City population199,72373,000
People per km²690-
Museums within 10 km121
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Salt Lake 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.