Winter Sun: Tenerife vs Hurghada vs Sal

When the clocks go back, three names fill the UK departure boards more than almost any others: Tenerife, Hurghada on Egypt's Red Sea coast, and Sal in Cape Verde. All three are warm when Britain is not, all three are under seven hours away, and all three are on the board we price hourly from ten UK airports. They are not the same holiday, though, and the differences are not the ones most people expect.

Quick Summary

Tenerife is the shortest flight, needs nothing beyond a passport, and is the easiest to do independently. Hurghada has the warmest sea and the cheapest meals, but needs a visa. Sal has the cheapest beer, a wind you can set your watch by and the least going on — which is exactly why people go.

Key Takeaways

Tenerife is roughly four hours from London; Hurghada is about five and Sal about six.
Hurghada's Red Sea stays swimmable without a wetsuit when the Canaries have gone cold.
Dinner for two runs about £16 in Hurghada, £24 on Sal and £40 in Tenerife — our figures, checked August 2026.
Egypt needs a visa and Cape Verde needs online pre-registration; only Tenerife is passport-and-go.
All three get dearer at Christmas and February half-term. Early December and late January are the cheap weeks.

In this guide

Getting There: Flight Time and Airports

From most of Britain these are direct flights, and the length is the first real difference. Tenerife South is about four hours from London and a little more from Scotland. Hurghada is around five hours, and Sal around six. On a one-week trip, two extra hours each way is not nothing — particularly with children.

	🌋 Tenerife (TFS)	🐠 Hurghada (HRG)	🪁 Sal (SID)
Flight from London	About 4 hours	About 5 hours	About 6 hours
Time difference in winter	None	2 hours ahead	1 hour behind
Paperwork	Passport only	Visa needed	Online pre-registration
GHIC valid	Yes	No	No

The fare itself moves every hour and depends heavily on which airport you leave from. Rather than print a number that would be wrong by lunchtime, the destination pages carry the live figure from every UK airport that returned one: Tenerife, Hurghada and Sal. If you are flexible on departure airport, the airport comparison shows the spread in one place.

How Warm Is It, Really?

This is where the brochures blur things. Tenerife is mild rather than hot in winter: the cold Canary Current keeps the air in a narrow, comfortable band, and what changes day to day is cloud, not temperature. The south of the island is sunnier than the north, often dramatically so — a grey morning in Puerto de la Cruz can be a cloudless one in Costa Adeje forty minutes away.

Mount Teide rising above a sea of clouds in Tenerife in winter

Tenerife's weather is decided by the mountain: cloud on the north side, sun on the south.

Hurghada is the warmest of the three in the depths of winter, and the sea is the reason. The Red Sea is a narrow trench shut in by desert, with almost no exchange with a cold ocean, so it holds its heat when the Atlantic has let go of it. Rain is close to a non-event. The one thing to plan for is wind, which blows hard and consistently — superb for kitesurfing, less so for a lilo.

Sal sits about twelve hundred miles south of the Canaries in open Atlantic, and its sea is noticeably warmer than Tenerife's on the same day. It is also the windiest of the three: the north-east trades cross thousands of kilometres of ocean and arrive at a flat island with nothing to slow them. Kiters love it. Anyone who wanted to read a book on the beach should look for a sheltered spot.

Snorkeller over a coral reef in the Red Sea near Hurghada, Egypt

The Red Sea off Hurghada stays swimmable without a wetsuit through the British winter.

What a Week Costs Once You Land

Flights are the half everyone compares. The other half is the one that decides the holiday. These are our own figures, in sterling, checked against sources in August 2026 and carried on each destination page with that month beside them:

	🌋 Tenerife	🐠 Hurghada	🪁 Sal
Beer, local bar	£2.20	£2.40	£1.20
Dinner for two, mid-range	£40	£16	£24
Airport to the resort	£33 taxi (bus under £5)	£8 transfer	£12 taxi
Cheap lunch	£4.50 bocadillo and coffee	£1 koshary	£3 cachupa

Two things the table does not show. In Hurghada most visitors are on all-inclusive boards, and the prices above are for outside the hotel gates — inside, everything carries a steep resort mark-up. Egypt's currency has also moved sharply in recent years, so sterling figures there shift faster than anywhere else on this list. Sal is the opposite: the Cape Verdean escudo is pegged to the euro, so its prices barely move.

Tenerife is the dearest of the three to eat out in, but it is also the only one where hiring a car — around £25 a day — opens up a genuinely different island: the green north, the pine forests, and the road up to Teide.

Paperwork: The Bit People Forget

Check before you book

Tenerife is Spain, so a valid passport is enough — check it meets the Schengen validity rules and allow time for the EU's Entry/Exit System at the border. Hurghada is mainland Egypt, so you need the full visa from day one, bought online beforehand or in cash at the airport; the free Sinai-only stamp does not apply here. Sal requires the EASE pre-registration and airport security tax to be paid online at least five days before you fly — arrive without it and you pay more at the border.

Health cover follows the same split. Your GHIC works in Tenerife because it is in the EU; it is worthless in Egypt and Cape Verde, where private travel insurance is essential. If you plan to dive in Hurghada or kitesurf on Sal, make sure the policy names the activity — standard policies usually exclude both. Our GHIC guide covers exactly where the card helps and where it does not.

Which One Is Right for You?

Best All-Rounder

Tenerife, for most first-timers

Shortest flight, no time difference, no visa, the widest choice of departures from regional UK airports, and an island with far more to do than lie on a sunbed. You pay a little more to eat out, and you trade guaranteed heat for reliable mildness.

🐠 Choose Hurghada if…

Warmth is the whole point, you want to snorkel or dive a proper reef, or you want an all-inclusive week where the budget is settled before you leave. Avoid Christmas and February half-term, when the charters fill.

🪁 Choose Sal if…

You want a quiet beach, a warmer sea than the Canaries, cheap drinks, and a wind that never lets you down if you came to kitesurf. Do the EASE form early and bring euros.