Photos: Cape Town by Stephan Louis, Pexels License; Havana by AXP Photography, Pexels License.
Cape Town or Havana?
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
- day trips
What lies behind each score is written up on Cape Town’s own page.
Choose Havana for
- live music and the arts
- culture and sights
- beaches
What lies behind each score is written up on Havana’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 Havana.
Your match
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.
Wins on nature and the outdoors and food and drink with your weighting.
Wins on live music and the arts 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
Havana in July
Daytime high, °C
Rainfall in the month, mm
Where the figures come from
Havana 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). Havana: 1991-2020 normals, Casa Blanca, La Habana (3.5 km from centre).
Before you go
| Measure | Cape Town | Havana |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | English, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign Language | Spanish |
| Currency | Rand (ZAR) | Cuban Peso (CUP) |
| Sockets | CMN230 V, 50 Hz | AB110 V, 60 Hz |
| Driving side | Left | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+2 | UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | Police 106, ambulance 104, fire 105 |
| Elevation | 5 m | 59 m |
| Main airport | Cape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinations | José Martí International Airport (HAV)17 km from centre21 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | 9 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Cape Town | Havana |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 3,776,313 | 2,492,618 |
| People per km² | 1,538 | 3,423 |
| Museums within 10 km | 22 | 12 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 3 | 1 |
| 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 Havana somewhere new.