VacationSelector
The lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh, Sharm el-Sheikh
Sharm el-SheikhThe lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh
The beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier, Virginia Beach
Virginia BeachThe beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier

Photos: Sharm el-Sheikh by Tanya Dedyukhina, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Virginia Beach by SchuminWeb, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Sharm el-Sheikh or Virginia Beach?

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 Virginia Beach for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Virginia Beach’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, Virginia Beach 77: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Sharm el-Sheikh 30, Virginia Beach 42: Virginia Beach leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Sharm el-Sheikh 12, Virginia Beach 30: Virginia Beach leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Sharm el-Sheikh 42, Virginia Beach 37: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Sharm el-Sheikh 82, Virginia Beach 56: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Sharm el-Sheikh 30, Virginia Beach 64: Virginia Beach leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Sharm el-Sheikh 62, Virginia Beach 75: Virginia Beach leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Sharm el-Sheikh 22, Virginia Beach 27: Virginia Beach leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Sharm el-Sheikh 25, Virginia Beach 32: Virginia Beach leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Sharm el-Sheikh 74, Virginia Beach 40: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 34 points.
Live music & performing arts. Sharm el-Sheikh 10, Virginia Beach 38: Virginia Beach leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Sharm el-Sheikh 50, Virginia Beach 32: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Sharm el-Sheikh and Virginia Beach.

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 prices and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Virginia Beach
46match

Wins on day trips 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
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Virginia Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
152 mmrain in the month
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Sharm el-SheikhVirginia Beach

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. Virginia Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Virginia Beach / Gatewood Park (5.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSharm el-SheikhVirginia Beach
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 m7 m
Main airportSharm El Sheikh International Airport (SSH)16 km from centre112 non-stop destinationsNorfolk International Airport (ORF)20 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSharm el-SheikhVirginia Beach
City population73,000459,470
Museums within 10 km12
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months4 months

Where else could you go?

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