VacationSelector
The Parthenon on the Acropolis, Athens
AthensThe Parthenon on the Acropolis
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower

Photos: Athens by Ranjeet Kumar Singh, Pexels License; Johannesburg by K, Pexels License.

Athens 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 Athens for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Athens’s own page.

Choose Johannesburg for

  • 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. Athens 70, Johannesburg 5: Athens leads by 65 points.
Food & drink. Athens 78, Johannesburg 58: Athens leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Athens 88, Johannesburg 56: Athens leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Athens 80, Johannesburg 62: Athens leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Athens 64, Johannesburg 55: Athens leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Athens 85, Johannesburg 52: Athens leads by 33 points.
Good for families. Athens 58, Johannesburg 42: Athens leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Athens 66, Johannesburg 18: Athens leads by 48 points.
Shopping & style. Athens 55, Johannesburg 58: Johannesburg leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Athens 56, Johannesburg 72: Johannesburg leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Athens 64, Johannesburg 55: Athens leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Athens 42, Johannesburg 28: Athens leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Athens and Johannesburg.

Your match

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

Athens
Best match
67match

Wins on beaches and getting around with your weighting.

Johannesburg
47match

Wins on prices and shopping with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Athens in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
7 mmrain in the month
13 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Johannesburg in July

19 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
AthensJohannesburg

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Athens: 1991-2020 normals, Athens / Athenai / Pláka (2.2 km from centre). Johannesburg: 2005-2019 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Johannesburg B / Roosevelt Park (7.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAthensJohannesburg
Official languageGreekEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign Language
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Rand (ZAR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCMN230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+2
Emergency number112112
Elevation74 m1,753 m
Main airportAthens Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport (ATH)20 km from centre173 non-stop destinationsO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAthensJohannesburg
City population643,4524,803,262
People per km²16,4992,922
Museums within 10 km8814
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Athens or Johannesburg somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.