VacationSelector
Lion's Head above Clifton Beach, Cape Town
Cape TownLion's Head above Clifton Beach
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge

Photos: Cape Town by Stephan Louis, Pexels License; San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License.

Cape Town or San Francisco?

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
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose San Francisco for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on San Francisco’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, San Francisco 25: Cape Town leads by 33 points.
Food & drink. Cape Town 72, San Francisco 82: San Francisco leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Cape Town 60, San Francisco 68: San Francisco leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Cape Town 60, San Francisco 58: Cape Town leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cape Town 98, San Francisco 80: Cape Town leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Cape Town 68, San Francisco 72: San Francisco leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Cape Town 58, San Francisco 66: San Francisco leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Cape Town 35, San Francisco 70: San Francisco leads by 35 points.
Shopping & style. Cape Town 50, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Cape Town 72, San Francisco 14: Cape Town leads by 58 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cape Town 52, San Francisco 76: San Francisco leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cape Town 45, San Francisco 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 San Francisco.

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 beaches with your weighting.

San Francisco
59match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts 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

San Francisco in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Cape TownSan Francisco

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cape Town: 1991-2020 normals, Cape Town Airport (17.5 km from centre). San Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCape TownSan Francisco
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-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation5 m16 m
Main airportCape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCape TownSan Francisco
City population3,776,313873,965
People per km²1,5381,455
Museums within 10 km2251
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
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 San Francisco 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.