VacationSelector
Lion's Head above Clifton Beach, Cape Town
Cape TownLion's Head above Clifton Beach
The Teatro Amazonas, Manaus
ManausThe Teatro Amazonas

Photos: Cape Town by Stephan Louis, Pexels License; Manaus by Jardelsliumba, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cape Town or Manaus?

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

  • day trips
  • wellness
  • families

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

Choose Manaus for

  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Manaus’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, Manaus 38: Cape Town leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. Cape Town 72, Manaus 56: Cape Town leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Cape Town 60, Manaus 46: Cape Town leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Cape Town 60, Manaus 42: Cape Town leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cape Town 98, Manaus 86: Cape Town leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Cape Town 68, Manaus 12: Cape Town leads by 56 points.
Good for families. Cape Town 58, Manaus 35: Cape Town leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Cape Town 35, Manaus 27: Cape Town leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Cape Town 50, Manaus 36: Cape Town leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Cape Town 72, Manaus 63: Cape Town leads by 9 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cape Town 52, Manaus 54: Manaus leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cape Town 45, Manaus 20: Cape Town leads by 25 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cape Town and Manaus.

Your match

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

Cape Town
Best match
61match

Wins on day trips and wellness with your weighting.

Manaus
43match

Wins on 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

Manaus in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
74 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Cape TownManaus

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cape Town: 1991-2020 normals, Cape Town Airport (17.5 km from centre). Manaus: 1991-2020 normals, Manaus (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCape TownManaus
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguagePortuguese
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC-4
Emergency number112Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation5 m92 m
Main airportCape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsEduardo Gomes International Airport (MAO)9 km from centre21 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureCape TownManaus
City population3,776,3132,303,732
People per km²1,538202
Museums within 10 km2213
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
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 Manaus 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.