Photos: Cape Town by Stephan Louis, Pexels License; Galle by Francisco Anzola, CC BY 2.0, cropped.
Cape Town or Galle?
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 Cape Town for
- nightlife
- live music and the arts
- nature and the outdoors
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.
What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cape Town and Galle.
Your match
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.
Wins on nightlife and live music and the arts with your weighting.
Wins on wellness and beaches with your weighting.
What matters to you?
When should you go?
Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.
Cape Town in July
Galle in July
Daytime high, °C
Rainfall in the month, mm
Where the figures come from
Galle has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.
Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cape Town: 1991-2020 normals, Cape Town Airport (17.5 km from centre). Galle: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.
Before you go
| Measure | Cape Town | Galle |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | English, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign Language | Tamil, Sinhala |
| Currency | Rand (ZAR) | Sri Lanka Rupee (LKR) |
| Sockets | CMN230 V, 50 Hz | GM230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Left | Left |
| Time zone | UTC+2 | UTC+5:30 |
| Emergency number | 112 | Police 119, ambulance 110, fire 110 |
| Elevation | 5 m | 0 m |
| Main airport | Cape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinations | Bandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)133 km from centre56 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | - |
By the numbers
| Measure | Cape Town | Galle |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 3,776,313 | 93,118 |
| People per km² | 1,538 | - |
| Museums within 10 km | 22 | 2 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 3 | 2 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | None | 12 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cape Town or Galle somewhere new.