VacationSelector
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House
The lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh, Sharm el-Sheikh
Sharm el-SheikhThe lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh

Photos: San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Sharm el-Sheikh by Tanya Dedyukhina, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

San Jose 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 San Jose for

  • day trips
  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink

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

Choose Sharm el-Sheikh for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • 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. San Jose 30, Sharm el-Sheikh 87: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 57 points.
Food & drink. San Jose 56, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: San Jose leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. San Jose 36, Sharm el-Sheikh 12: San Jose leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. San Jose 33, Sharm el-Sheikh 42: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 9 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Jose 72, Sharm el-Sheikh 82: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 10 points.
Day trips. San Jose 78, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: San Jose leads by 48 points.
Good for families. San Jose 65, Sharm el-Sheikh 62: San Jose leads by 3 points.
Getting around. San Jose 30, Sharm el-Sheikh 22: San Jose leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. San Jose 48, Sharm el-Sheikh 25: San Jose leads by 23 points.
Affordability. San Jose 20, Sharm el-Sheikh 74: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 54 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Jose 38, Sharm el-Sheikh 10: San Jose leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Jose 30, Sharm el-Sheikh 50: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Jose 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, 1 point apart

San Jose
45match

Wins on day trips and live music and the arts 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.

San Jose in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
14 °Csea
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

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
San JoseSharm 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. San Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre). Sharm el-Sheikh: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureSan JoseSharm 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
Elevation25 m1 m
Main airportMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinationsSharm El Sheikh International Airport (SSH)16 km from centre112 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan JoseSharm el-Sheikh
City population1,013,24073,000
People per km²2,167-
Museums within 10 km191
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 San Jose 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.