VacationSelector
Lion's Head above Clifton Beach, Cape Town
Cape TownLion's Head above Clifton Beach
The Cap Spartel lighthouse among palms, Tangier
TangierThe Cap Spartel lighthouse among palms

Photos: Cape Town by Stephan Louis, Pexels License; Tangier by Ideophagous, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cape Town or Tangier?

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
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Tangier for

  • getting around
  • wellness
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Tangier’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, Tangier 50: Cape Town leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Cape Town 72, Tangier 58: Cape Town leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Cape Town 60, Tangier 57: Cape Town leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Cape Town 60, Tangier 30: Cape Town leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cape Town 98, Tangier 55: Cape Town leads by 43 points.
Day trips. Cape Town 68, Tangier 72: Tangier leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Cape Town 58, Tangier 35: Cape Town leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Cape Town 35, Tangier 40: Tangier leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Cape Town 50, Tangier 42: Cape Town leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Cape Town 72, Tangier 76: Tangier leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cape Town 52, Tangier 28: Cape Town leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cape Town 45, Tangier 50: Tangier leads by 5 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cape Town and Tangier.

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 nightlife with your weighting.

Tangier
49match

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

18 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
89 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
15 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Tangier in July

29 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
22 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Cape TownTangier

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cape Town: 1991-2020 normals, Cape Town Airport (17.5 km from centre). Tangier: 1991-2020 normals, Tanger Aerodrome (9.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCape TownTangier
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageArabic, Standard Moroccan Tamazight
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Moroccan Dirham (MAD)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCE50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+1
Emergency number112Police 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15
Elevation5 m56 m
Main airportCape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsTangier Ibn Battuta Airport (TNG)11 km from centre50 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCape TownTangier
City population3,776,3131,275,428
People per km²1,5386,393
Museums within 10 km226
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone3 months

Where else could you go?

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