VacationSelector
Lion's Head above Clifton Beach, Cape Town
Cape TownLion's Head above Clifton Beach
Stortorget in Gamla stan, Stockholm
StockholmStortorget in Gamla stan

Photos: Cape Town by Stephan Louis, Pexels License; Stockholm by Jorge Franganillo, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Cape Town or Stockholm?

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 Stockholm for

  • getting around
  • families
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Stockholm’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, Stockholm 40: Cape Town leads by 18 points.
Food & drink. Cape Town 72, Stockholm 64: Cape Town leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Cape Town 60, Stockholm 77: Stockholm leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Cape Town 60, Stockholm 57: Cape Town leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cape Town 98, Stockholm 72: Cape Town leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Cape Town and Stockholm are level on 68.
Good for families. Cape Town 58, Stockholm 82: Stockholm leads by 24 points.
Getting around. Cape Town 35, Stockholm 84: Stockholm leads by 49 points.
Shopping & style. Cape Town 50, Stockholm 70: Stockholm leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Cape Town 72, Stockholm 30: Cape Town leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cape Town 52, Stockholm 65: Stockholm leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cape Town 45, Stockholm 56: Stockholm leads by 11 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cape Town and Stockholm.

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.

Stockholm
Best match
64match

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

Stockholm in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
65 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
18 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
Cape TownStockholm

Where the figures come from

Stockholm 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.

Stockholm's sunshine is measured 26 km from the centre, at Stockholm Observatoriet.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cape Town: 1991-2020 normals, Cape Town Airport (17.5 km from centre). Stockholm: 2003-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Stockholm Bromma Airport (7.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCape TownStockholm
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageSwedish
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Swedish Krona (SEK)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation5 m22 m
Main airportCape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsStockholm-Arlanda Airport (ARN)36 km from centre174 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureCape TownStockholm
City population3,776,313984,748
People per km²1,5385,260
Museums within 10 km22266
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km33
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 Stockholm 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.