VacationSelector
Skiers at the Albion base of the ski area, Alta, Utah
Alta, UtahSkiers at the Albion base of the ski area
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower

Photos: Alta, Utah by Sumanch, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Johannesburg by K, Pexels License.

Alta, Utah or Johannesburg?

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 Alta, Utah for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Alta, Utah’s own page.

Choose Johannesburg for

  • nightlife
  • prices
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Johannesburg’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. Alta, Utah 3, Johannesburg 5: Johannesburg leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Alta, Utah 15, Johannesburg 58: Johannesburg leads by 43 points.
Culture & sights. Alta, Utah 5, Johannesburg 56: Johannesburg leads by 51 points.
Nightlife. Alta, Utah 4, Johannesburg 62: Johannesburg leads by 58 points.
Nature & outdoors. Alta, Utah 90, Johannesburg 55: Alta, Utah leads by 35 points.
Day trips. Alta, Utah 40, Johannesburg 52: Johannesburg leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Alta, Utah 30, Johannesburg 42: Johannesburg leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Alta, Utah 35, Johannesburg 18: Alta, Utah leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Alta, Utah 4, Johannesburg 58: Johannesburg leads by 54 points.
Affordability. Alta, Utah 15, Johannesburg 72: Johannesburg leads by 57 points.
Live music & performing arts. Alta, Utah 3, Johannesburg 55: Johannesburg leads by 52 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Alta, Utah 35, Johannesburg 28: Alta, Utah leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Alta, Utah and Johannesburg.

Your match

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

Alta, Utah
23match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around with your weighting.

Johannesburg
Best match
47match

Wins on nightlife and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Alta, Utah in July

22 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Johannesburg in July

19 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
Alta, UtahJohannesburg

Where the figures come from

Alta, Utah 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. Alta, Utah: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km. Johannesburg: 2005-2019 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Johannesburg B / Roosevelt Park (7.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAlta, UtahJohannesburg
Official language-English, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign Language
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Rand (ZAR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCMN230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC+2
Emergency number911112
Elevation2,610 m1,753 m
Main airportSalt Lake City International Airport (SLC)37 km from centre108 non-stop destinationsO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre83 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlta, UtahJohannesburg
City population2284,803,262
People per km²192,922
Museums within 10 km014
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Alta, Utah or Johannesburg 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. 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.