VacationSelector
The Texas State Capitol under a blue sky, Austin
AustinThe Texas State Capitol under a blue sky
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower

Photos: Austin by LoneStarMike, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Johannesburg by K, Pexels License.

Austin 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 Austin for

  • beaches
  • live music and the arts
  • families

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

Choose Johannesburg for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • 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. Austin 30, Johannesburg 5: Austin leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Austin 66, Johannesburg 58: Austin leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Austin 40, Johannesburg 56: Johannesburg leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Austin 65, Johannesburg 62: Austin leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Austin 57, Johannesburg 55: Austin leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Austin 58, Johannesburg 52: Austin leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Austin 55, Johannesburg 42: Austin leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Austin 30, Johannesburg 18: Austin leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Austin 45, Johannesburg 58: Johannesburg leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Austin 33, Johannesburg 72: Johannesburg leads by 39 points.
Live music & performing arts. Austin 77, Johannesburg 55: Austin leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Austin 40, Johannesburg 28: Austin leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Austin and Johannesburg.

Your match

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

Austin
Best match
50match

Wins on beaches and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Johannesburg
47match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Austin in July

36 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
49 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
14 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

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
AustinJohannesburg

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Austin: 1991-2020 normals, Camp Mabry/Austin City Asos (3.7 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

MeasureAustinJohannesburg
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-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC+2
Emergency number911112
Elevation149 m1,753 m
Main airportAustin Bergstrom International Airport (AUS)13 km from centre91 non-stop destinationsO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAustinJohannesburg
City population961,8554,803,262
People per km²1,2172,922
Museums within 10 km2114
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 Austin 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. 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. 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.