VacationSelector
Lion's Head above Clifton Beach, Cape Town
Cape TownLion's Head above Clifton Beach
Gastown, Vancouver
VancouverGastown

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

Cape Town or Vancouver?

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
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Vancouver for

  • getting around
  • families
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Vancouver’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, Vancouver 42: Cape Town leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. Cape Town and Vancouver are level on 72.
Culture & sights. Cape Town 60, Vancouver 42: Cape Town leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Cape Town 60, Vancouver 42: Cape Town leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cape Town 98, Vancouver 97: Cape Town leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Cape Town 68, Vancouver 45: Cape Town leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Cape Town 58, Vancouver 72: Vancouver leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Cape Town 35, Vancouver 73: Vancouver leads by 38 points.
Shopping & style. Cape Town 50, Vancouver 55: Vancouver leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Cape Town 72, Vancouver 27: Cape Town leads by 45 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cape Town and Vancouver are level on 52.
Wellness & relaxation. Cape Town 45, Vancouver 50: Vancouver leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cape Town and Vancouver.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Cape Town
Best match
61match

Wins on prices and day trips with your weighting.

Vancouver
56match

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

Vancouver in July

23 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
42 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Cape TownVancouver

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cape Town: 1991-2020 normals, Cape Town Airport (17.5 km from centre). Vancouver: 1991-2020 normals, Vancouver Harbour CS (4.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCape TownVancouver
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageFrench, English
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation5 m2 m
Main airportCape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsVancouver International Airport (YVR)9 km from centre109 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCape TownVancouver
City population3,776,313662,248
People per km²1,5385,759
Museums within 10 km2226
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 Vancouver 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.