VacationSelector
The lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh, Sharm el-Sheikh
Sharm el-SheikhThe lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh
The old railway depot in the snow, Steamboat Springs
Steamboat SpringsThe old railway depot in the snow

Photos: Sharm el-Sheikh by Tanya Dedyukhina, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Steamboat Springs by Jeffrey Beall, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Sharm el-Sheikh or Steamboat Springs?

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
  • prices
  • nightlife

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

Choose Steamboat Springs for

  • getting around
  • wellness
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Steamboat Springs’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, Steamboat Springs 7: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 80 points.
Food & drink. Sharm el-Sheikh and Steamboat Springs are level on 30.
Culture & sights. Sharm el-Sheikh 12, Steamboat Springs 14: Steamboat Springs leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Sharm el-Sheikh 42, Steamboat Springs 20: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Sharm el-Sheikh 82, Steamboat Springs 88: Steamboat Springs leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Sharm el-Sheikh 30, Steamboat Springs 12: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Sharm el-Sheikh and Steamboat Springs are level on 62.
Getting around. Sharm el-Sheikh 22, Steamboat Springs 46: Steamboat Springs leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Sharm el-Sheikh 25, Steamboat Springs 22: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Sharm el-Sheikh 74, Steamboat Springs 17: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 57 points.
Live music & performing arts. Sharm el-Sheikh 10, Steamboat Springs 28: Steamboat Springs leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Sharm el-Sheikh 50, Steamboat Springs 70: Steamboat Springs leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Sharm el-Sheikh and Steamboat Springs.

Your match

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

Sharm el-Sheikh
Best match
44match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Steamboat Springs
35match

Wins on getting around and wellness 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
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Steamboat Springs in July

28 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
31 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0204060JFMAMJJASOND
Sharm el-SheikhSteamboat Springs

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.

Steamboat Springs 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.

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. Steamboat Springs: 2011-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Steamboat Springs / Steamboat Ii (5.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSharm el-SheikhSteamboat Springs
Official languageArabic-
CurrencyEgyptian Pound (EGP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 122, ambulance 123, fire 180911
Elevation1 m2,052 m
Main airportSharm El Sheikh International Airport (SSH)16 km from centre112 non-stop destinationsYampa Valley Airport (HDN)33 km from centre17 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureSharm el-SheikhSteamboat Springs
City population73,00013,224
People per km²-503
Museums within 10 km10
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 Steamboat Springs 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.