Photos: Cape Town by Stephan Louis, Pexels License; Oslo by Beata May, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.
Cape Town or Oslo?
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
- beaches
- food and drink
What lies behind each score is written up on Cape Town’s own page.
Choose Oslo for
- getting around
- wellness
- live music and the arts
What lies behind each score is written up on Oslo’s own page.
Scoreboard
Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.
What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cape Town and Oslo.
Your match
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.
Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.
Wins on getting around and wellness 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
Oslo in July
Daytime high, °C
Rainfall in the month, mm
Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cape Town: 1991-2020 normals, Cape Town Airport (17.5 km from centre). Oslo: 1991-2020 normals, Oslo-Blindern (4.3 km from centre).
Before you go
| Measure | Cape Town | Oslo |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | English, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign Language | Norwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, Sámi |
| Currency | Rand (ZAR) | Norwegian Krone (NOK) |
| Sockets | CMN230 V, 50 Hz | CF230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Left | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+2 | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | Police 112, ambulance 113, fire 110 |
| Elevation | 5 m | 23 m |
| Main airport | Cape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinations | Oslo-Gardermoen International Airport (OSL)37 km from centre147 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | 13 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Cape Town | Oslo |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 3,776,313 | 717,710 |
| People per km² | 1,538 | - |
| Museums within 10 km | 22 | 60 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 3 | 0 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | None | None |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cape Town or Oslo somewhere new.