VacationSelector
Lion's Head above Clifton Beach, Cape Town
Cape TownLion's Head above Clifton Beach
Erasmus Bridge and the skyline, Rotterdam
RotterdamErasmus Bridge and the skyline

Photos: Cape Town by Stephan Louis, Pexels License; Rotterdam by Bas Geerlings, Pexels License.

Cape Town or Rotterdam?

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
  • prices
  • beaches

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

Choose Rotterdam for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Rotterdam’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, Rotterdam 27: Cape Town leads by 31 points.
Food & drink. Cape Town 72, Rotterdam 52: Cape Town leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Cape Town 60, Rotterdam 58: Cape Town leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Cape Town 60, Rotterdam 52: Cape Town leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cape Town 98, Rotterdam 44: Cape Town leads by 54 points.
Day trips. Cape Town 68, Rotterdam 85: Rotterdam leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Cape Town 58, Rotterdam 66: Rotterdam leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Cape Town 35, Rotterdam 78: Rotterdam leads by 43 points.
Shopping & style. Cape Town 50, Rotterdam 55: Rotterdam leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Cape Town 72, Rotterdam 38: Cape Town leads by 34 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cape Town 52, Rotterdam 58: Rotterdam leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cape Town 45, Rotterdam 42: Cape Town leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cape Town and Rotterdam.

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 prices with your weighting.

Rotterdam
55match

Wins on getting around and day trips 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

Rotterdam in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
Cape TownRotterdam

Where the figures come from

Rotterdam has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Rotterdam's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at De Bilt.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cape Town: 1991-2020 normals, Cape Town Airport (17.5 km from centre). Rotterdam: 1993-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Rotterdam Airport Zestienhoven (3.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCape TownRotterdam
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageDutch
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation5 m10 m
Main airportCape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsRotterdam The Hague Airport (RTM)5 km from centre53 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCape TownRotterdam
City population3,776,313664,311
People per km²1,5382,080
Museums within 10 km2240
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km35
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cape Town or Rotterdam 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.