VacationSelector
Lion's Head above Clifton Beach, Cape Town
Cape TownLion's Head above Clifton Beach
The Istiqlal Mosque, Jakarta
JakartaThe Istiqlal Mosque

Photos: Cape Town by Stephan Louis, Pexels License; Jakarta by Antonyus Bunjamin, Pexels License.

Cape Town or Jakarta?

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
  • beaches
  • day trips

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

Choose Jakarta for

  • shopping
  • prices
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Jakarta’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, Jakarta 28: Cape Town leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Cape Town 72, Jakarta 78: Jakarta leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Cape Town 60, Jakarta 48: Cape Town leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Cape Town 60, Jakarta 66: Jakarta leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cape Town 98, Jakarta 30: Cape Town leads by 68 points.
Day trips. Cape Town 68, Jakarta 45: Cape Town leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Cape Town 58, Jakarta 50: Cape Town leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Cape Town 35, Jakarta 36: Jakarta leads by 1 points.
Shopping & style. Cape Town 50, Jakarta 64: Jakarta leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Cape Town 72, Jakarta 80: Jakarta leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cape Town 52, Jakarta 42: Cape Town leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cape Town 45, Jakarta 46: Jakarta leads by 1 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cape Town and Jakarta.

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 beaches with your weighting.

Jakarta
51match

Wins on shopping 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

Jakarta in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
85 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Cape TownJakarta

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cape Town: 1991-2020 normals, Cape Town Airport (17.5 km from centre). Jakarta: 1991-2020 normals, Jakarta / Observatory (1.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCape TownJakarta
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageIndonesian
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Rupiah (IDR)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCF50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+7
Emergency number112112
Elevation5 m91 m
Main airportCape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsSoekarno-Hatta International Airport (CGK)20 km from centre89 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCape TownJakarta
City population3,776,31311,135,191
People per km²1,53816,821
Museums within 10 km2244
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
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 Jakarta 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.