VacationSelector
Lion's Head above Clifton Beach, Cape Town
Cape TownLion's Head above Clifton Beach
The fountain on Plaza Mayor, Lima
LimaThe fountain on Plaza Mayor

Photos: Cape Town by Stephan Louis, Pexels License; Lima by James C., CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Cape Town or Lima?

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
  • day trips
  • wellness

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

Choose Lima for

  • food and drink
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Lima’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, Lima 42: Cape Town leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. Cape Town 72, Lima 88: Lima leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Cape Town 60, Lima 66: Lima leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Cape Town 60, Lima 62: Lima leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cape Town 98, Lima 45: Cape Town leads by 53 points.
Day trips. Cape Town 68, Lima 34: Cape Town leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Cape Town 58, Lima 42: Cape Town leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Cape Town and Lima are level on 35.
Shopping & style. Cape Town 50, Lima 52: Lima leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Cape Town 72, Lima 70: Cape Town leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cape Town 52, Lima 53: Lima leads by 1 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cape Town 45, Lima 25: Cape Town 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 Lima.

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 day trips with your weighting.

Lima
51match

Wins on food and drink 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

18 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
89 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
15 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Lima in July

19 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
1 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
Cape TownLima

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cape Town: 1991-2020 normals, Cape Town Airport (17.5 km from centre). Lima: 1991-2020 normals, Lima-Callao / Aerop. Internacional Jorgechavez (10.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCape TownLima
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageSpanish, Aymara, Quechua
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Sol (PEN)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzABC220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC-5
Emergency number112111 or 911
Elevation5 m154 m
Main airportCape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsJorge Chávez International Airport (LIM)9 km from centre61 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureCape TownLima
City population3,776,3139,943,800
People per km²1,5383,721
Museums within 10 km2247
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km32
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone2 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cape Town or Lima 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.