VacationSelector
The Sagrada Família, Barcelona
BarcelonaThe Sagrada Família
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower

Photos: Barcelona by Canaan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Johannesburg by K, Pexels License.

Barcelona 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 Barcelona for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • families

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

Choose Johannesburg for

  • prices

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. Barcelona 75, Johannesburg 5: Barcelona leads by 70 points.
Food & drink. Barcelona 82, Johannesburg 58: Barcelona leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Barcelona 86, Johannesburg 56: Barcelona leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Barcelona 82, Johannesburg 62: Barcelona leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Barcelona 72, Johannesburg 55: Barcelona leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Barcelona 80, Johannesburg 52: Barcelona leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Barcelona 76, Johannesburg 42: Barcelona leads by 34 points.
Getting around. Barcelona 80, Johannesburg 18: Barcelona leads by 62 points.
Shopping & style. Barcelona 75, Johannesburg 58: Barcelona leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Barcelona 44, Johannesburg 72: Johannesburg leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Barcelona 70, Johannesburg 55: Barcelona leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Barcelona 38, Johannesburg 28: Barcelona leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Barcelona and Johannesburg.

Your match

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

Barcelona
Best match
72match

Wins on beaches and getting around with your weighting.

Johannesburg
47match

Wins on prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Barcelona in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
24 °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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
BarcelonaJohannesburg

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Barcelona: 1991-2020 normals, Barcelona / Aeropuerto (14.4 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

MeasureBarcelonaJohannesburg
Official languageSpanishEnglish, 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+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+2
Emergency number112112
Elevation9 m1,753 m
Main airportJosep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN)13 km from centre235 non-stop destinationsO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBarcelonaJohannesburg
City population1,731,6494,803,262
People per km²17,0942,922
Museums within 10 km9514
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km32
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Barcelona 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.