VacationSelector
The Flame Towers from the seafront, Baku
BakuThe Flame Towers from the seafront
Lion's Head above Clifton Beach, Cape Town
Cape TownLion's Head above Clifton Beach

Photos: Baku by Zulfugar Karimov, Pexels License; Cape Town by Stephan Louis, Pexels License.

Baku or Cape Town?

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 Baku for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Cape Town for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Cape Town’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. Baku 40, Cape Town 58: Cape Town leads by 18 points.
Food & drink. Baku 60, Cape Town 72: Cape Town leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Baku 62, Cape Town 60: Baku leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Baku 42, Cape Town 60: Cape Town leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Baku 30, Cape Town 98: Cape Town leads by 68 points.
Day trips. Baku 45, Cape Town 68: Cape Town leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Baku 45, Cape Town 58: Cape Town leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Baku 58, Cape Town 35: Baku leads by 23 points.
Shopping & style. Baku 48, Cape Town 50: Cape Town leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Baku 64, Cape Town 72: Cape Town leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Baku and Cape Town are level on 52.
Wellness & relaxation. Baku 30, Cape Town 45: Cape Town leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Baku and Cape Town.

Your match

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

Baku
48match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

Cape Town
Best match
61match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Baku in July

30 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
5 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Cape Town in July

18 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
89 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
15 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
BakuCape Town

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Baku: 1991-2020 normals, Mashtaga (23.2 km from centre). Cape Town: 1991-2020 normals, Cape Town Airport (17.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBakuCape Town
Official languageAzerbaijani, Azerbaijani Sign LanguageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign Language
CurrencyAzerbaijan Manat (AZN)Rand (ZAR)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzCMN230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+4UTC+2
Emergency number102 or 112112
Elevation-28 m5 m
Main airportHeydar Aliyev International Airport (GYD)22 km from centre79 non-stop destinationsCape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBakuCape Town
City population2,300,5003,776,313
People per km²1,0751,538
Museums within 10 km5022
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km23
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Baku or Cape Town 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.