VacationSelector
The Hôtel du Palais, Biarritz
BiarritzThe Hôtel du Palais
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower

Photos: Biarritz by Lilipiapia, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Johannesburg by K, Pexels License.

Biarritz 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 Biarritz for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • wellness

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

Choose Johannesburg for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

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. Biarritz 68, Johannesburg 5: Biarritz leads by 63 points.
Food & drink. Biarritz 62, Johannesburg 58: Biarritz leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Biarritz 33, Johannesburg 56: Johannesburg leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Biarritz 36, Johannesburg 62: Johannesburg leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Biarritz 74, Johannesburg 55: Biarritz leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Biarritz 80, Johannesburg 52: Biarritz leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Biarritz 62, Johannesburg 42: Biarritz leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Biarritz 58, Johannesburg 18: Biarritz leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Biarritz 42, Johannesburg 58: Johannesburg leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Biarritz 30, Johannesburg 72: Johannesburg leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Biarritz 38, Johannesburg 55: Johannesburg leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Biarritz 64, Johannesburg 28: Biarritz leads by 36 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Biarritz and Johannesburg.

Your match

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

Biarritz
Best match
54match

Wins on beaches and getting around with your weighting.

Johannesburg
47match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Biarritz in July

24 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
97 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
21 °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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
BiarritzJohannesburg

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Biarritz: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Biarritz (2.5 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

MeasureBiarritzJohannesburg
Official languageFrenchEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign Language
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Rand (ZAR)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzCMN230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+2
Emergency number112112
Elevation0 m1,753 m
Main airportBiarritz Pays Basque airport (BIQ)3 km from centre25 non-stop destinationsO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBiarritzJohannesburg
City population26,2064,803,262
People per km²2,2402,922
Museums within 10 km814
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months-

Where else could you go?

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