VacationSelector
Lion's Head above Clifton Beach, Cape Town
Cape TownLion's Head above Clifton Beach
Big Ben and Westminster Bridge, London
LondonBig Ben and Westminster Bridge

Photos: Cape Town by Stephan Louis, Pexels License; London by AXP Photography, Pexels License.

Cape Town or London?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

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

Choose London for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on London’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, London 25: Cape Town leads by 33 points.
Food & drink. Cape Town 72, London 84: London leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Cape Town 60, London 94: London leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. Cape Town 60, London 88: London leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cape Town 98, London 57: Cape Town leads by 41 points.
Day trips. Cape Town 68, London 90: London leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Cape Town 58, London 82: London leads by 24 points.
Getting around. Cape Town 35, London 85: London leads by 50 points.
Shopping & style. Cape Town 50, London 95: London leads by 45 points.
Affordability. Cape Town 72, London 15: Cape Town leads by 57 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cape Town 52, London 98: London leads by 46 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cape Town 45, London 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 London.

Your match

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

Cape Town
61match

Wins on prices and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

London
Best match
71match

Wins on getting around 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

London in July

23 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
Cape TownLondon

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cape Town: 1991-2020 normals, Cape Town Airport (17.5 km from centre). London: 1992-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, London Weather Centre (1.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCape TownLondon
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageEnglish
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+2UTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112 or 999
Elevation5 m4 m
Main airportCape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsLondon Heathrow Airport (LHR)23 km from centre224 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureCape TownLondon
City population3,776,3138,799,728
People per km²1,5385,598
Museums within 10 km22216
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km34
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 London 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.