VacationSelector
Lion's Head above Clifton Beach, Cape Town
Cape TownLion's Head above Clifton Beach
The Japanese Covered Bridge, Hoi An
Hoi AnThe Japanese Covered Bridge

Photos: Cape Town by Stephan Louis, Pexels License; Hoi An by François Guerraz, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Cape Town or Hoi An?

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
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Hoi An for

  • wellness
  • prices
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Hoi An’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, Hoi An 72: Hoi An leads by 14 points.
Food & drink. Cape Town 72, Hoi An 68: Cape Town leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Cape Town 60, Hoi An 66: Hoi An leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Cape Town 60, Hoi An 28: Cape Town leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cape Town 98, Hoi An 63: Cape Town leads by 35 points.
Day trips. Cape Town 68, Hoi An 50: Cape Town leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Cape Town and Hoi An are level on 58.
Getting around. Cape Town 35, Hoi An 48: Hoi An leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Cape Town 50, Hoi An 57: Hoi An leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Cape Town 72, Hoi An 88: Hoi An leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cape Town 52, Hoi An 24: Cape Town leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cape Town 45, Hoi An 65: Hoi An leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cape Town and Hoi An.

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 nightlife with your weighting.

Hoi An
57match

Wins on wellness 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

Hoi An in July

35 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
83 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0200400600800JFMAMJJASOND
Cape TownHoi An

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cape Town: 1991-2020 normals, Cape Town Airport (17.5 km from centre). Hoi An: 1991-2020 normals, Da Nang (23.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCape TownHoi An
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageVietnamese
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Dong (VND)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzACFG220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+7
Emergency number112Police 113, ambulance 115, fire 114
Elevation5 m13 m
Main airportCape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsDa Nang International Airport (DAD)23 km from centre47 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCape TownHoi An
City population3,776,313121,716
People per km²1,538-
Museums within 10 km225
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km32
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cape Town or Hoi An 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.