VacationSelector
The lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh, Sharm el-Sheikh
Sharm el-SheikhThe lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh
The Warrior on a Horse, Macedonia Square, Skopje
SkopjeThe Warrior on a Horse, Macedonia Square

Photos: Sharm el-Sheikh by Tanya Dedyukhina, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Skopje by George M. Groutas, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Sharm el-Sheikh or Skopje?

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 Sharm el-Sheikh for

  • beaches
  • families
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Sharm el-Sheikh’s own page.

Choose Skopje for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Skopje’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. Sharm el-Sheikh 87, Skopje 6: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 81 points.
Food & drink. Sharm el-Sheikh 30, Skopje 52: Skopje leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Sharm el-Sheikh 12, Skopje 56: Skopje leads by 44 points.
Nightlife. Sharm el-Sheikh and Skopje are level on 42.
Nature & outdoors. Sharm el-Sheikh 82, Skopje 70: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Sharm el-Sheikh 30, Skopje 56: Skopje leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Sharm el-Sheikh 62, Skopje 35: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 27 points.
Getting around. Sharm el-Sheikh 22, Skopje 45: Skopje leads by 23 points.
Shopping & style. Sharm el-Sheikh 25, Skopje 40: Skopje leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Sharm el-Sheikh 74, Skopje 80: Skopje leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Sharm el-Sheikh 10, Skopje 38: Skopje leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Sharm el-Sheikh 50, Skopje 27: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 23 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Sharm el-Sheikh and Skopje.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Sharm el-Sheikh
44match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Skopje
46match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Skopje in July

32 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
31 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0204060JFMAMJJASOND
Sharm el-SheikhSkopje

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.

Skopje 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.

Skopje's sunshine is measured 68 km from the centre, at Stip.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Sharm el-Sheikh: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Skopje: 1991-2020 (sunshine 1961-1990) normals, Skopje-Petrovec (18.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSharm el-SheikhSkopje
Official languageArabicAlbanian, Macedonian
CurrencyEgyptian Pound (EGP)Denar (MKD)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 122, ambulance 123, fire 180112
Elevation1 m251 m
Main airportSharm El Sheikh International Airport (SSH)16 km from centre112 non-stop destinationsSkopje International Airport (SKP)16 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureSharm el-SheikhSkopje
City population73,000422,540
People per km²-739
Museums within 10 km117
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Sharm el-Sheikh or Skopje somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.