VacationSelector
Lion's Head above Clifton Beach, Cape Town
Cape TownLion's Head above Clifton Beach
The Croatian National Theatre, Zagreb
ZagrebThe Croatian National Theatre

Photos: Cape Town by Stephan Louis, Pexels License; Zagreb by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cape Town or Zagreb?

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

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • food and drink

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

Choose Zagreb for

  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Zagreb’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, Zagreb 10: Cape Town leads by 48 points.
Food & drink. Cape Town 72, Zagreb 55: Cape Town leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Cape Town 60, Zagreb 56: Cape Town leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Cape Town 60, Zagreb 47: Cape Town leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cape Town 98, Zagreb 62: Cape Town leads by 36 points.
Day trips. Cape Town 68, Zagreb 60: Cape Town leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Cape Town 58, Zagreb 52: Cape Town leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Cape Town 35, Zagreb 70: Zagreb leads by 35 points.
Shopping & style. Cape Town 50, Zagreb 40: Cape Town leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Cape Town 72, Zagreb 60: Cape Town leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cape Town and Zagreb are level on 52.
Wellness & relaxation. Cape Town 45, Zagreb 33: Cape Town leads by 12 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Cape Town
Best match
61match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Zagreb
50match

Wins on getting around 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

Zagreb in July

29 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
87 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Cape TownZagreb

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cape Town: 1991-2020 normals, Cape Town Airport (17.5 km from centre). Zagreb: 1991-2020 normals, Zagreb / Gric (0.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCape TownZagreb
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageCroatian
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation5 m127 m
Main airportCape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsZagreb Franjo Tuđman International Airport (ZAG)11 km from centre64 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureCape TownZagreb
City population3,776,313767,131
People per km²1,538-
Museums within 10 km2227
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

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