VacationSelector
The Story Bridge from Howard Smith Wharves, Brisbane
BrisbaneThe Story Bridge from Howard Smith Wharves
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower

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

Brisbane 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 Brisbane for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Brisbane’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. Brisbane 55, Johannesburg 5: Brisbane leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Brisbane 60, Johannesburg 58: Brisbane leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Brisbane 42, Johannesburg 56: Johannesburg leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Brisbane 55, Johannesburg 62: Johannesburg leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Brisbane 74, Johannesburg 55: Brisbane leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Brisbane 50, Johannesburg 52: Johannesburg leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Brisbane 78, Johannesburg 42: Brisbane leads by 36 points.
Getting around. Brisbane 62, Johannesburg 18: Brisbane leads by 44 points.
Shopping & style. Brisbane 45, Johannesburg 58: Johannesburg leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Brisbane 33, Johannesburg 72: Johannesburg leads by 39 points.
Live music & performing arts. Brisbane and Johannesburg are level on 55.
Wellness & relaxation. Brisbane 40, Johannesburg 28: Brisbane leads by 12 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Brisbane and Johannesburg.

Your match

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

Brisbane
Best match
54match

Wins on beaches and getting around 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.

Brisbane in July

22 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
20 °Csea
11 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

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BrisbaneJohannesburg

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Brisbane: 1991-2020 normals, Brisbane (4.5 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

MeasureBrisbaneJohannesburg
Official languageEnglishEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign Language
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Rand (ZAR)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzCMN230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+10UTC+2
Emergency number000112
Elevation0 m1,753 m
Main airportBrisbane International Airport (BNE)13 km from centre88 non-stop destinationsO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBrisbaneJohannesburg
City population2,706,9664,803,262
People per km²1712,922
Museums within 10 km1614
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C9 months-

Where else could you go?

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