VacationSelector
Lion's Head above Clifton Beach, Cape Town
Cape TownLion's Head above Clifton Beach
The skyline reflected in the water, The Hague
The HagueThe skyline reflected in the water

Photos: Cape Town by Stephan Louis, Pexels License; The Hague by Bráulio jardim, Pexels License.

Cape Town or The Hague?

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
  • food and drink

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

Choose The Hague for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on The Hague’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, The Hague 38: Cape Town leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. Cape Town 72, The Hague 48: Cape Town leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Cape Town 60, The Hague 66: The Hague leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Cape Town 60, The Hague 38: Cape Town leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cape Town 98, The Hague 52: Cape Town leads by 46 points.
Day trips. Cape Town 68, The Hague 86: The Hague leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Cape Town 58, The Hague 72: The Hague leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Cape Town 35, The Hague 78: The Hague leads by 43 points.
Shopping & style. Cape Town 50, The Hague 55: The Hague leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Cape Town 72, The Hague 35: Cape Town leads by 37 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cape Town 52, The Hague 58: The Hague leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cape Town and The Hague are level on 45.
0255075100

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

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.

The Hague
56match

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

The Hague in July

21 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
78 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

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Cape TownThe Hague

Where the figures come from

The Hague 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.

The Hague's sunshine is measured 60 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). The Hague: 1991-2020 normals, Valkenburg (13.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCape TownThe Hague
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 m1 m
Main airportCape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsRotterdam The Hague Airport (RTM)16 km from centre53 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCape TownThe Hague
City population3,776,313548,320
People per km²1,5385,589
Museums within 10 km2254
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km34
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 The Hague 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.