VacationSelector
Lion's Head above Clifton Beach, Cape Town
Cape TownLion's Head above Clifton Beach
The Outback, with the Tenmile Range in the distance, Keystone
KeystoneThe Outback, with the Tenmile Range in the distance

Photos: Cape Town by Stephan Louis, Pexels License; Keystone by Rudi Riet, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Cape Town or Keystone?

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

  • prices
  • beaches
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Keystone for

  • getting around
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Keystone’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, Keystone 5: Cape Town leads by 53 points.
Food & drink. Cape Town 72, Keystone 27: Cape Town leads by 45 points.
Culture & sights. Cape Town 60, Keystone 7: Cape Town leads by 53 points.
Nightlife. Cape Town 60, Keystone 12: Cape Town leads by 48 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cape Town 98, Keystone 93: Cape Town leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Cape Town 68, Keystone 55: Cape Town leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Cape Town 58, Keystone 66: Keystone leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Cape Town 35, Keystone 50: Keystone leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Cape Town 50, Keystone 22: Cape Town leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Cape Town 72, Keystone 12: Cape Town leads by 60 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cape Town 52, Keystone 22: Cape Town leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cape Town 45, Keystone 32: Cape Town leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cape Town and Keystone.

Your match

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

Cape Town
Best match
61match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

Keystone
34match

Wins on getting around and families 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

Keystone in July

21 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
39 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
Cape TownKeystone

Where the figures come from

Keystone's temperatures are measured 51 km from the centre, at Leadville / Stringtown.

Keystone's station stands 232 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Keystone 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). Keystone: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Leadville / Stringtown (50.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCape TownKeystone
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign Language-
CurrencyRand (ZAR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation5 m2,796 m
Main airportCape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsDenver International Airport (DEN)116 km from centre231 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureCape TownKeystone
City population3,776,3131,369
People per km²1,53813
Museums within 10 km220
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
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 Keystone 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.