Two coasts. One week. Decide with numbers.

Sea surface, monthly means in °C Jun. Antalya 25, Hurghada 27
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec

Antalya bars sit above the baseline, Hurghada below, on one shared 16 to 30 °C scale. These are monthly means, not a forecast for a given day.

Two children wading on a wide, very shallow beach shelf in clear pale water, pine covered slope behind
Shallow shelves matter more than hotel stars when a four year old wants to walk out thirty metres and still stand.

Set the family band before you compare coasts

Tap one chip per row. The band reads back below and travels into the planner.

Kid ages
Travel month
Departure hub
Flight tolerance
Budget band
Must-haves

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Two coasts, seven named figures

Flight block times run from Katowice, Warsaw, Chisinau and Bucharest, because departures from Ukrainian airports are still suspended. Sea temperatures, kids-club ages and beach shelf figures are the ones the resorts publish, and we have not inspected them on site.

Where two rows land on the same figure it is marked level on the criteria winners page. Dates already fixed? Size the week in the planner.

Which coast wins each criterion

Antalya and the Red Sea split the ledger, not the week. Five criteria, one plain verdict each, and a figure behind every verdict.

Shallow sandy shelf at Lara beach near Antalya, with a family standing knee-deep far from the shoreline
Lara, Antalya: thirty metres of knee-deep water before the shelf drops away.

Antalya coast, Turkey

Sea temperature
Holds 24°C from late May to early October.

Verdict: Turkey takes May and the first half of October.

Flight time from UA hubs
2h 30m from Warsaw and Katowice, 2h 10m from Chisinau.

Verdict: Turkey wins, roughly two hours closer.

Beach shelf
A four-year-old can walk thirty metres and still be waist-deep.

Verdict: Turkey wins for non-swimmers.

Kids club starting age
Most Belek and Side clubs open from age 4, published by the resorts and not independently inspected.

Verdict: Level.

Medical access
State hospital 25 minutes from the Lara hotel strip.

Verdict: Level.

Red Sea coast, Egypt

Sea temperature
Hurghada holds 26°C from May to October.

Verdict: Egypt wins five straight months.

Flight time from UA hubs
4h from Warsaw, 4h 30m from Bucharest.

Verdict: Egypt places second by two hours.

Beach shelf
Several hotel beaches drop to chest depth within 10 metres.

Verdict: Pack reef shoes for the shallow end.

Kids club starting age
Most resort clubs open from age 4, figures published by the resorts and not independently inspected.

Verdict: Level.

Medical access
Private clinic within 15 minutes of most resort strips.

Verdict: Level.

Departures from Ukrainian airports are not currently available, so every block time above is quoted from Warsaw, Katowice, Chisinau and Bucharest. See the full criteria winners in the comparison ledger.

Practicalities, set in the margin

Five items to settle before you compare prices on either coast.

  1. 01

    Visa and entry

    Egypt issues a tourist visa on arrival at Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh for USD 25 single entry, or you can apply for the e-visa before departure. Turkey runs on the e-Visa or visa-free entry for many passports, capped at 90 days in any 180.

    Confirm your nationality's current rule. We do not issue visas or letters of invitation.

  2. 02

    Currency and cash

    Turkey bills in lira, Egypt in Egyptian pounds. Taxis, tips and beach kiosks on both coasts expect notes; hotel desks and larger restaurants take cards. Carry a small daily float and change money at a bank branch rather than the airport counter.

    ATM fees are charged per withdrawal on both coasts, so take fewer, larger amounts.

  3. 03

    SIM and connectivity

    A Turkish tourist SIM is registered to your passport at the point of sale, so an eSIM bought before you fly skips that queue. Egypt sells tourist SIMs at the airport against a passport. Room wifi at Antalya resorts is consistently faster than at Hurghada beach hotels.

    Tariffs change each season. Check the operator's own page before you buy.

  4. 04

    Insurance and medical access

    A private clinic sits within a short drive of both main resort strips. Outside Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh, English-speaking paediatricians are thinner on the Red Sea coast. Buy a policy that names medical evacuation, not only hospital costs.

    Turkey uses 112 for emergencies. Egypt uses 123 for an ambulance and 122 for police.

  5. 05

    Water safety and the beach shelf

    Lara Beach on the Antalya coast shelves slowly: a four-year-old can wade about thirty metres and still be waist-deep. Several Hurghada hotel beaches reach two metres within five steps of the shoreline, so ask about the shelf before you book a toddler week.

    Caution: a few Hurghada beaches fall sharply at the reef edge. Ask the hotel for a shelf photo at the swimming line.

Departures from Ukrainian airports are not currently available. Warsaw, Katowice, Chisinau and Bucharest are the practical departure points, with block times of 1h45 to 2h50 to Antalya and 3h15 to 4h30 to Hurghada.

The figures behind these notes sit in the criteria ledger.

What we do not do

This is a reading room for two coastlines, not a travel agency. Four things are excluded by design, and each one is checked before a page publishes.

  1. No bookings

    We run no reservation system, take no deposits and issue no vouchers. Hotels, transfers and kids clubs are booked directly with the provider or through a tour operator you choose.

  2. No commission

    Nothing here is paid for by a hotel, a resort or a tour operator. No placement fee, no referral fee, no sponsored row inside a comparison table.

  3. No affiliate links

    Outbound links carry no tracking parameters and earn us nothing. A resort named beside a sea temperature figure is named because the figure was published, not because anyone paid for the mention.

  4. No accounts

    There is no sign-up, no login and no saved profile. The planner runs in your browser and holds your dates and children's ages only while the tab stays open.

Where a criterion does not separate Antalya from Hurghada, the comparison writes "level" instead of picking a side. The results sit in the criteria winners.

Corrections and questions

Send a sea temperature, a flight block time from your departure hub, or a kids-club age band you think we have wrong. Each note is checked against the monthly record before it goes back into the comparison table.