VacationSelector
Lion's Head above Clifton Beach, Cape Town
Cape TownLion's Head above Clifton Beach
Galway Cathedral from the River Corrib, Galway
GalwayGalway Cathedral from the River Corrib

Photos: Cape Town by Stephan Louis, Pexels License; Galway by Dieglop, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cape Town or Galway?

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

  • prices
  • beaches
  • food and drink

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

Choose Galway for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Galway’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. Cape Town 58, Galway 28: Cape Town leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Cape Town 72, Galway 45: Cape Town leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Cape Town 60, Galway 33: Cape Town leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Cape Town 60, Galway 50: Cape Town leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cape Town 98, Galway 78: Cape Town leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Cape Town 68, Galway 56: Cape Town leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Cape Town 58, Galway 42: Cape Town leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Cape Town 35, Galway 58: Galway leads by 23 points.
Shopping & style. Cape Town 50, Galway 38: Cape Town leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Cape Town 72, Galway 28: Cape Town leads by 44 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cape Town 52, Galway 57: Galway leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cape Town 45, Galway 28: Cape Town leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cape Town and Galway.

Your match

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

Cape Town
Best match
61match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

Galway
45match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts 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

18 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
89 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
15 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Galway in July

20 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
Cape TownGalway

Where the figures come from

Galway's temperatures are measured 64 km from the centre, at Shannon Airport.

Galway has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cape Town: 1991-2020 normals, Cape Town Airport (17.5 km from centre). Galway: 1991-2020 normals, Shannon Airport (64.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCape TownGalway
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageEnglish, Irish
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+2UTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation5 m25 m
Main airportCape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsShannon Airport (SNN)64 km from centre39 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCape TownGalway
City population3,776,31383,456
People per km²1,5381,563
Museums within 10 km224
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cape Town or Galway 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.