VacationSelector
Lion's Head above Clifton Beach, Cape Town
Cape TownLion's Head above Clifton Beach
A galleon on the Motława below the old crane, Gdansk
GdanskA galleon on the Motława below the old crane

Photos: Cape Town by Stephan Louis, Pexels License; Gdansk by Nikater, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Cape Town or Gdansk?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • food and drink
  • beaches

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

Choose Gdansk for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Gdansk’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, Gdansk 40: Cape Town leads by 18 points.
Food & drink. Cape Town 72, Gdansk 50: Cape Town leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Cape Town 60, Gdansk 68: Gdansk leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Cape Town 60, Gdansk 52: Cape Town leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cape Town 98, Gdansk 58: Cape Town leads by 40 points.
Day trips. Cape Town 68, Gdansk 62: Cape Town leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Cape Town 58, Gdansk 62: Gdansk leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Cape Town 35, Gdansk 72: Gdansk leads by 37 points.
Shopping & style. Cape Town 50, Gdansk 42: Cape Town leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Cape Town 72, Gdansk 68: Cape Town leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cape Town and Gdansk are level on 52.
Wellness & relaxation. Cape Town 45, Gdansk 36: Cape Town leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cape Town and Gdansk.

Your match

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

Cape Town
Best match
61match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and food and drink with your weighting.

Gdansk
55match

Wins on getting around 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.

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

Gdansk in July

22 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
85 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
Cape TownGdansk

Where the figures come from

Gdansk 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.

Gdansk's sunshine is measured 55 km from the centre, at Elblag.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cape Town: 1991-2020 normals, Cape Town Airport (17.5 km from centre). Gdansk: 1991-2020 normals, Gdansk-Rebiechowo (12.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCape TownGdansk
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguagePolish
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Zloty (PLN)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCE50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation5 m11 m
Main airportCape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsGdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport (GDN)13 km from centre72 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureCape TownGdansk
City population3,776,313487,834
People per km²1,538714
Museums within 10 km2234
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km32
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 Gdansk 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.