VacationSelector
The terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía, Santiago
SantiagoThe terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía
The lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh, Sharm el-Sheikh
Sharm el-SheikhThe lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh

Photos: Santiago by Rjcastillo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Sharm el-Sheikh by Tanya Dedyukhina, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Santiago 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 Santiago for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Santiago’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. Santiago 12, Sharm el-Sheikh 87: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 75 points.
Food & drink. Santiago 60, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: Santiago leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Santiago 52, Sharm el-Sheikh 12: Santiago leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Santiago 60, Sharm el-Sheikh 42: Santiago leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santiago 83, Sharm el-Sheikh 82: Santiago leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Santiago 70, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: Santiago leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Santiago 57, Sharm el-Sheikh 62: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Santiago 68, Sharm el-Sheikh 22: Santiago leads by 46 points.
Shopping & style. Santiago 52, Sharm el-Sheikh 25: Santiago leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Santiago 58, Sharm el-Sheikh 74: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santiago 55, Sharm el-Sheikh 10: Santiago leads by 45 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santiago 37, Sharm el-Sheikh 50: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santiago and Sharm el-Sheikh.

Your match

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

Santiago
Best match
55match

Wins on getting around 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.

Santiago in July

14 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
52 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
10 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

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
SantiagoSharm 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. Santiago: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago Q. Normal (3.1 km from centre). Sharm el-Sheikh: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureSantiagoSharm el-Sheikh
Official languageSpanishArabic
CurrencyChilean Peso (CLP)Egyptian Pound (EGP)
SocketsCL220 V, 50 HzCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4, UTC-3 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132Police 122, ambulance 123, fire 180
Elevation575 m1 m
Main airportComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)14 km from centre67 non-stop destinationsSharm El Sheikh International Airport (SSH)16 km from centre112 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureSantiagoSharm el-Sheikh
City population6,257,51673,000
People per km²7,468-
Museums within 10 km541
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 Santiago 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.