VacationSelector
The lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh, Sharm el-Sheikh
Sharm el-SheikhThe lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh
St. Petersburg, Florida

Photos: Sharm el-Sheikh by Tanya Dedyukhina, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Sharm el-Sheikh or St. Petersburg, Florida?

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

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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

Choose St. Petersburg, Florida for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on St. Petersburg, Florida’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, St. Petersburg, Florida 85: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Sharm el-Sheikh 30, St. Petersburg, Florida 52: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Sharm el-Sheikh 12, St. Petersburg, Florida 52: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Sharm el-Sheikh 42, St. Petersburg, Florida 44: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Sharm el-Sheikh 82, St. Petersburg, Florida 58: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Sharm el-Sheikh 30, St. Petersburg, Florida 55: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Sharm el-Sheikh 62, St. Petersburg, Florida 70: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Sharm el-Sheikh 22, St. Petersburg, Florida 33: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 11 points.
Shopping & style. Sharm el-Sheikh 25, St. Petersburg, Florida 38: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Sharm el-Sheikh 74, St. Petersburg, Florida 35: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 39 points.
Live music & performing arts. Sharm el-Sheikh 10, St. Petersburg, Florida 42: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Sharm el-Sheikh 50, St. Petersburg, Florida 40: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Sharm el-Sheikh and St. Petersburg, Florida.

Your match

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

Sharm el-Sheikh
44match

Wins on prices and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

St. Petersburg, Florida
Best match
50match

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

St. Petersburg, Florida in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
197 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Sharm el-SheikhSt. Petersburg, Florida

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. Sharm el-Sheikh: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. St. Petersburg, Florida: 1998-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Saint Petersburg (1.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSharm el-SheikhSt. Petersburg, Florida
Official languageArabic-
CurrencyEgyptian Pound (EGP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 122, ambulance 123, fire 180911
Elevation1 m134 m
Main airportSharm El Sheikh International Airport (SSH)16 km from centre112 non-stop destinationsSt. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport (PIE)16 km from centre60 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSharm el-SheikhSt. Petersburg, Florida
City population73,000258,308
People per km²-725
Museums within 10 km113
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Sharm el-Sheikh or St. Petersburg, Florida 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.