VacationSelector
A galleon on the Motława below the old crane, Gdansk
GdanskA galleon on the Motława below the old crane
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower

Photos: Gdansk by Nikater, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Johannesburg by K, Pexels License.

Gdansk or Johannesburg?

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 Gdansk for

  • getting around
  • beaches
  • families

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

Choose Johannesburg for

  • shopping
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Johannesburg’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. Gdansk 40, Johannesburg 5: Gdansk leads by 35 points.
Food & drink. Gdansk 50, Johannesburg 58: Johannesburg leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Gdansk 68, Johannesburg 56: Gdansk leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Gdansk 52, Johannesburg 62: Johannesburg leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Gdansk 58, Johannesburg 55: Gdansk leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Gdansk 62, Johannesburg 52: Gdansk leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Gdansk 62, Johannesburg 42: Gdansk leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Gdansk 72, Johannesburg 18: Gdansk leads by 54 points.
Shopping & style. Gdansk 42, Johannesburg 58: Johannesburg leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Gdansk 68, Johannesburg 72: Johannesburg leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Gdansk 52, Johannesburg 55: Johannesburg leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Gdansk 36, Johannesburg 28: Gdansk leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Gdansk and Johannesburg.

Your match

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

Gdansk
Best match
55match

Wins on getting around and beaches with your weighting.

Johannesburg
47match

Wins on shopping and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Gdansk in July

22 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
85 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Johannesburg in July

19 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
GdanskJohannesburg

Where the figures come from

Gdansk 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.

Gdansk's sunshine is measured 55 km from the centre, at Elblag.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Gdansk: 1991-2020 normals, Gdansk-Rebiechowo (12.7 km from centre). Johannesburg: 2005-2019 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Johannesburg B / Roosevelt Park (7.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGdanskJohannesburg
Official languagePolishEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign Language
CurrencyZloty (PLN)Rand (ZAR)
SocketsCE50 HzCMN230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+2
Emergency number112112
Elevation11 m1,753 m
Main airportGdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport (GDN)13 km from centre72 non-stop destinationsO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureGdanskJohannesburg
City population487,8344,803,262
People per km²7142,922
Museums within 10 km3414
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Gdansk or Johannesburg 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.