VacationSelector
Lion's Head above Clifton Beach, Cape Town
Cape TownLion's Head above Clifton Beach
Valletta from the water, Valletta
VallettaValletta from the water

Photos: Cape Town by Stephan Louis, Pexels License; Valletta by Pho Tomass, Pexels License.

Cape Town or Valletta?

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 Valletta for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Valletta’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, Valletta 68: Valletta leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Cape Town 72, Valletta 55: Cape Town leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Cape Town 60, Valletta 76: Valletta leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Cape Town 60, Valletta 46: Cape Town leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cape Town 98, Valletta 56: Cape Town leads by 42 points.
Day trips. Cape Town 68, Valletta 76: Valletta leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Cape Town and Valletta are level on 58.
Getting around. Cape Town 35, Valletta 62: Valletta leads by 27 points.
Shopping & style. Cape Town 50, Valletta 38: Cape Town leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Cape Town 72, Valletta 50: Cape Town leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cape Town 52, Valletta 44: Cape Town leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cape Town 45, Valletta 32: Cape Town leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cape Town and Valletta.

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.

Valletta
55match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights 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

Valletta in July

32 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
Cape TownValletta

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cape Town: 1991-2020 normals, Cape Town Airport (17.5 km from centre). Valletta: 1991-2020 normals, Luqa (5.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCape TownValletta
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageEnglish, Maltese
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation5 m56 m
Main airportCape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsMalta International Airport (MLA)6 km from centre113 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureCape TownValletta
City population3,776,3135,197
People per km²1,5386,496
Museums within 10 km2216
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km33
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone6 months

Where else could you go?

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