VacationSelector
Lion's Head above Clifton Beach, Cape Town
Cape TownLion's Head above Clifton Beach
Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan, New York
New YorkBrooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan

Photos: Cape Town by Stephan Louis, Pexels License; New York by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Cape Town or New York?

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 New York for

  • getting around
  • shopping
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on New York’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, New York 50: Cape Town leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Cape Town 72, New York 92: New York leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Cape Town 60, New York 89: New York leads by 29 points.
Nightlife. Cape Town 60, New York 97: New York leads by 37 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cape Town 98, New York 55: Cape Town leads by 43 points.
Day trips. Cape Town and New York are level on 68.
Good for families. Cape Town 58, New York 70: New York leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Cape Town 35, New York 82: New York leads by 47 points.
Shopping & style. Cape Town 50, New York 97: New York leads by 47 points.
Affordability. Cape Town 72, New York 12: Cape Town leads by 60 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cape Town 52, New York 99: New York leads by 47 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cape Town 45, New York 42: Cape Town leads by 3 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cape Town and New York.

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.

New York
Best match
71match

Wins on getting around and shopping 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

New York in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
107 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
22 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Cape TownNew York

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cape Town: 1991-2020 normals, Cape Town Airport (17.5 km from centre). New York: 1991-2020 normals, LaGuardia Airport (12.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCape TownNew York
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 m25 m
Main airportCape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsJohn F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)21 km from centre189 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCape TownNew York
City population3,776,3138,804,190
People per km²1,5387,256
Museums within 10 km22157
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km32
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone3 months

Where else could you go?

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