VacationSelector
Lion's Head above Clifton Beach, Cape Town
Cape TownLion's Head above Clifton Beach
The Sun and Moon pagodas on Shan Lake, Guilin
GuilinThe Sun and Moon pagodas on Shan Lake

Photos: Cape Town by Stephan Louis, Pexels License; Guilin by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Cape Town or Guilin?

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

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

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

Choose Guilin for

  • getting around
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Guilin’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, Guilin 8: Cape Town leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Cape Town 72, Guilin 45: Cape Town leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Cape Town 60, Guilin 40: Cape Town leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Cape Town 60, Guilin 30: Cape Town leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cape Town 98, Guilin 88: Cape Town leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Cape Town 68, Guilin 56: Cape Town leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Cape Town 58, Guilin 45: Cape Town leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Cape Town 35, Guilin 45: Guilin leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Cape Town 50, Guilin 28: Cape Town leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Cape Town 72, Guilin 78: Guilin leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cape Town 52, Guilin 30: Cape Town leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cape Town 45, Guilin 40: Cape Town leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cape Town and Guilin.

Your match

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

Cape Town
Best match
61match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Guilin
44match

Wins on getting around 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.

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

Guilin in July

33 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
248 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Cape TownGuilin

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cape Town: 1991-2020 normals, Cape Town Airport (17.5 km from centre). Guilin: 1991-2020 normals, Guilin (7.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCape TownGuilin
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguagePutonghua
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+8
Emergency number112Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation5 m153 m
Main airportCape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsGuilin Liangjiang International Airport (KWL)25 km from centre43 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureCape TownGuilin
City population3,776,3134,931,137
People per km²1,538-
Museums within 10 km221
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cape Town or Guilin 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.