VacationSelector
Lion's Head above Clifton Beach, Cape Town
Cape TownLion's Head above Clifton Beach
The Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, Wilmington
WilmingtonThe Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge

Photos: Cape Town by Stephan Louis, Pexels License; Wilmington by Unexpected Snacks, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cape Town or Wilmington?

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 Wilmington for

  • beaches
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Wilmington’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, Wilmington 73: Wilmington leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Cape Town 72, Wilmington 48: Cape Town leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Cape Town 60, Wilmington 40: Cape Town leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Cape Town 60, Wilmington 40: Cape Town leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cape Town 98, Wilmington 58: Cape Town leads by 40 points.
Day trips. Cape Town 68, Wilmington 45: Cape Town leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Cape Town 58, Wilmington 62: Wilmington leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Cape Town 35, Wilmington 28: Cape Town leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Cape Town 50, Wilmington 33: Cape Town leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Cape Town 72, Wilmington 42: Cape Town leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cape Town 52, Wilmington 40: Cape Town leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cape Town 45, Wilmington 33: Cape Town leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cape Town and Wilmington.

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.

Wilmington
45match

Wins on beaches 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

Wilmington in July

32 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
174 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
27 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Cape TownWilmington

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cape Town: 1991-2020 normals, Cape Town Airport (17.5 km from centre). Wilmington: 1991-2020 normals, Wilmington / The Palms Mobile Home Park (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCape TownWilmington
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign Language-
CurrencyRand (ZAR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation5 m9 m
Main airportCape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsWilmington International Airport (ILM)5 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureCape TownWilmington
City population3,776,313115,451
People per km²1,538839
Museums within 10 km222
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
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 Wilmington 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.