VacationSelector
The statue of Columbus in Parque Colon before the cathedral, Santo Domingo
Santo DomingoThe statue of Columbus in Parque Colon before the cathedral
The lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh, Sharm el-Sheikh
Sharm el-SheikhThe lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh

Photos: Santo Domingo by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Sharm el-Sheikh by Tanya Dedyukhina, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Santo Domingo 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 Santo Domingo for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Santo Domingo’s own page.

Choose Sharm el-Sheikh for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • 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. Santo Domingo 58, Sharm el-Sheikh 87: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 29 points.
Food & drink. Santo Domingo 58, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: Santo Domingo leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Santo Domingo 64, Sharm el-Sheikh 12: Santo Domingo leads by 52 points.
Nightlife. Santo Domingo 66, Sharm el-Sheikh 42: Santo Domingo leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santo Domingo 36, Sharm el-Sheikh 82: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 46 points.
Day trips. Santo Domingo 44, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: Santo Domingo leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Santo Domingo 40, Sharm el-Sheikh 62: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Santo Domingo 40, Sharm el-Sheikh 22: Santo Domingo leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Santo Domingo 44, Sharm el-Sheikh 25: Santo Domingo leads by 19 points.
Affordability. Santo Domingo 66, Sharm el-Sheikh 74: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santo Domingo 46, Sharm el-Sheikh 10: Santo Domingo leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santo Domingo 22, Sharm el-Sheikh 50: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 28 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santo Domingo and Sharm el-Sheikh.

Your match

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

Santo Domingo
Best match
49match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Sharm el-Sheikh
44match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

Santo Domingo in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
183 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
13 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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Santo DomingoSharm el-Sheikh

Where the figures come from

Santo Domingo has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

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. Santo Domingo: 1991-2020 normals, Santo Domingo (6.4 km from centre). Sharm el-Sheikh: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureSanto DomingoSharm el-Sheikh
Official languageSpanishArabic
CurrencyDominican Peso (DOP)Egyptian Pound (EGP)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number911Police 122, ambulance 123, fire 180
Elevation14 m1 m
Main airportLas Américas International Airport (SDQ)28 km from centre40 non-stop destinationsSharm El Sheikh International Airport (SSH)16 km from centre112 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanto DomingoSharm el-Sheikh
City population2,201,94173,000
People per km²1,691-
Museums within 10 km101
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Santo Domingo 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). 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. 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.