VacationSelector
Lion's Head above Clifton Beach, Cape Town
Cape TownLion's Head above Clifton Beach
A lifeguard stand on South Beach, Miami
MiamiA lifeguard stand on South Beach

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

Cape Town or Miami?

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
  • day trips

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

Choose Miami for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Miami’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, Miami 90: Miami leads by 32 points.
Food & drink. Cape Town and Miami are level on 72.
Culture & sights. Cape Town 60, Miami 57: Cape Town leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Cape Town 60, Miami 82: Miami leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cape Town 98, Miami 64: Cape Town leads by 34 points.
Day trips. Cape Town 68, Miami 42: Cape Town leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Cape Town 58, Miami 64: Miami leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Cape Town and Miami are level on 35.
Shopping & style. Cape Town 50, Miami 71: Miami leads by 21 points.
Affordability. Cape Town 72, Miami 27: Cape Town leads by 45 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cape Town 52, Miami 55: Miami leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cape Town 45, Miami 44: Cape Town leads by 1 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cape Town and Miami.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Cape Town
61match

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

Miami
59match

Wins on beaches and nightlife 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

Miami in July

33 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
186 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Cape TownMiami

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cape Town: 1991-2020 normals, Cape Town Airport (17.5 km from centre). Miami: 1991-2020 normals, Miami International Airport (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCape TownMiami
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-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation5 m2 m
Main airportCape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsMiami International Airport (MIA)7 km from centre198 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCape TownMiami
City population3,776,313442,241
People per km²1,5383,046
Museums within 10 km2217
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
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 Miami 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.