VacationSelector
Lion's Head above Clifton Beach, Cape Town
Cape TownLion's Head above Clifton Beach
The Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign, Las Vegas
Las VegasThe Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign

Photos: Cape Town by Stephan Louis, Pexels License; Las Vegas by Christian David, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cape Town or Las Vegas?

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
  • day trips
  • prices

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

Choose Las Vegas for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Las Vegas’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, Las Vegas 10: Cape Town leads by 48 points.
Food & drink. Cape Town 72, Las Vegas 68: Cape Town leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Cape Town 60, Las Vegas 25: Cape Town leads by 35 points.
Nightlife. Cape Town 60, Las Vegas 88: Las Vegas leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cape Town 98, Las Vegas 68: Cape Town leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Cape Town 68, Las Vegas 25: Cape Town leads by 43 points.
Good for families. Cape Town 58, Las Vegas 25: Cape Town leads by 33 points.
Getting around. Cape Town 35, Las Vegas 38: Las Vegas leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Cape Town 50, Las Vegas 64: Las Vegas leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Cape Town 72, Las Vegas 35: Cape Town leads by 37 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cape Town 52, Las Vegas 78: Las Vegas leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cape Town 45, Las Vegas 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 Las Vegas.

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 day trips with your weighting.

Las Vegas
47match

Wins on nightlife and live music and the arts 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

Las Vegas in July

40 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
Cape TownLas Vegas

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cape Town: 1991-2020 normals, Cape Town Airport (17.5 km from centre). Las Vegas: 1991-2020 normals, McCarran International Airport (8.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCape TownLas Vegas
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-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation5 m610 m
Main airportCape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsHarry Reid International Airport (LAS)4 km from centre159 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCape TownLas Vegas
City population3,776,313641,903
People per km²1,5381,843
Museums within 10 km2221
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 Las Vegas 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.