VacationSelector
Lion's Head above Clifton Beach, Cape Town
Cape TownLion's Head above Clifton Beach
Shitennō-ji temple, Osaka
OsakaShitennō-ji temple

Photos: Cape Town by Stephan Louis, Pexels License; Osaka by Sarmat Batagov, Pexels License.

Cape Town or Osaka?

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
  • prices

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

Choose Osaka for

  • getting around
  • families
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Osaka’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, Osaka 34: Cape Town leads by 24 points.
Food & drink. Cape Town 72, Osaka 91: Osaka leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Cape Town 60, Osaka 63: Osaka leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Cape Town 60, Osaka 80: Osaka leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cape Town 98, Osaka 58: Cape Town leads by 40 points.
Day trips. Cape Town 68, Osaka 97: Osaka leads by 29 points.
Good for families. Cape Town 58, Osaka 88: Osaka leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Cape Town 35, Osaka 90: Osaka leads by 55 points.
Shopping & style. Cape Town 50, Osaka 80: Osaka leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Cape Town 72, Osaka 60: Cape Town leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cape Town 52, Osaka 66: Osaka leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cape Town 45, Osaka 66: Osaka leads by 21 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cape Town and Osaka.

Your match

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

Cape Town
61match

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

Osaka
Best match
73match

Wins on getting around and families 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

Osaka in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
175 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Cape TownOsaka

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cape Town: 1991-2020 normals, Cape Town Airport (17.5 km from centre). Osaka: 1991-2020 normals, Osaka (1.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCape TownOsaka
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageJapanese
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Yen (JPY)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+9
Emergency number112Police 110, fire 119
Elevation5 m20 m
Main airportCape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsKansai International Airport (KIX)38 km from centre62 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureCape TownOsaka
City population3,776,3132,751,862
People per km²1,53812,340
Museums within 10 km2244
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km36
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone5 months

Where else could you go?

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