VacationSelector
The Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires
Buenos AiresThe Teatro Colón
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower

Photos: Buenos Aires by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Johannesburg by K, Pexels License.

Buenos Aires 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 Buenos Aires for

  • getting around
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Johannesburg for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Buenos Aires 7, Johannesburg 5: Buenos Aires leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Buenos Aires 75, Johannesburg 58: Buenos Aires leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Buenos Aires 71, Johannesburg 56: Buenos Aires leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Buenos Aires 95, Johannesburg 62: Buenos Aires leads by 33 points.
Nature & outdoors. Buenos Aires 38, Johannesburg 55: Johannesburg leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Buenos Aires 60, Johannesburg 52: Buenos Aires leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Buenos Aires 52, Johannesburg 42: Buenos Aires leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Buenos Aires 62, Johannesburg 18: Buenos Aires leads by 44 points.
Shopping & style. Buenos Aires 60, Johannesburg 58: Buenos Aires leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Buenos Aires 55, Johannesburg 72: Johannesburg leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Buenos Aires 75, Johannesburg 55: Buenos Aires leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Buenos Aires and Johannesburg are level on 28.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Buenos Aires
Best match
57match

Wins on getting around and nightlife with your weighting.

Johannesburg
47match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Buenos Aires in July

15 °Cdaytime high
8 °Cnight-time low
50 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
13 °Csea
10 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
Buenos AiresJohannesburg

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Buenos Aires: 1991-2020 normals, Aeroparque Bs. As. Aerodrome (4.9 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

MeasureBuenos AiresJohannesburg
Official languageSpanishEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign Language
CurrencyArgentine Peso (ARS)Rand (ZAR)
SocketsCI220 V, 50 HzCMN230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC-3UTC+2
Emergency number117 or 911112
Elevation25 m1,753 m
Main airportEzeiza International Airport - Ministro Pistarini (EZE)28 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBuenos AiresJohannesburg
City population3,121,7074,803,262
People per km²15,3552,922
Museums within 10 km7614
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months-

Where else could you go?

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