VacationSelector
Lion's Head above Clifton Beach, Cape Town
Cape TownLion's Head above Clifton Beach
The Manila Central Post Office on the Pasig, Manila
ManilaThe Manila Central Post Office on the Pasig

Photos: Cape Town by Stephan Louis, Pexels License; Manila by Kenneth Surillo, Pexels License.

Cape Town or Manila?

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
  • beaches
  • day trips

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

Choose Manila for

  • shopping
  • prices
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Manila’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, Manila 12: Cape Town leads by 46 points.
Food & drink. Cape Town 72, Manila 64: Cape Town leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Cape Town 60, Manila 54: Cape Town leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Cape Town 60, Manila 64: Manila leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cape Town 98, Manila 40: Cape Town leads by 58 points.
Day trips. Cape Town 68, Manila 42: Cape Town leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Cape Town 58, Manila 42: Cape Town leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Cape Town 35, Manila 26: Cape Town leads by 9 points.
Shopping & style. Cape Town 50, Manila 60: Manila leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Cape Town 72, Manila 77: Manila leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cape Town 52, Manila 50: Cape Town leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cape Town 45, Manila 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 Manila.

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 beaches with your weighting.

Manila
48match

Wins on shopping and prices 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

Manila in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
487 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
Cape TownManila

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cape Town: 1991-2020 normals, Cape Town Airport (17.5 km from centre). Manila: 1991-2020 normals, Science Garden (6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCape TownManila
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageEnglish, Filipino, Taglish
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Philippine Peso (PHP)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzABC220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+8
Emergency number112911
Elevation5 m9 m
Main airportCape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsNinoy Aquino International Airport (MNL)11 km from centre90 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days18 days

By the numbers

MeasureCape TownManila
City population3,776,3131,902,590
People per km²1,53876,104
Museums within 10 km2227
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

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