VacationSelector
The fountain in Piazza De Ferrari, Genoa
GenoaThe fountain in Piazza De Ferrari
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower

Photos: Genoa by Faber1893, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Johannesburg by K, Pexels License.

Genoa 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 Genoa for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • day trips

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

Choose Johannesburg for

  • nightlife
  • prices
  • shopping

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. Genoa 62, Johannesburg 5: Genoa leads by 57 points.
Food & drink. Genoa 72, Johannesburg 58: Genoa leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Genoa 76, Johannesburg 56: Genoa leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Genoa 42, Johannesburg 62: Johannesburg leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Genoa 78, Johannesburg 55: Genoa leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Genoa 83, Johannesburg 52: Genoa leads by 31 points.
Good for families. Genoa 64, Johannesburg 42: Genoa leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Genoa 66, Johannesburg 18: Genoa leads by 48 points.
Shopping & style. Genoa 48, Johannesburg 58: Johannesburg leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Genoa 55, Johannesburg 72: Johannesburg leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Genoa 52, Johannesburg 55: Johannesburg leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Genoa 35, Johannesburg 28: Genoa leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Genoa and Johannesburg.

Your match

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

Genoa
Best match
61match

Wins on beaches and getting around with your weighting.

Johannesburg
47match

Wins on nightlife and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Genoa in July

27 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
GenoaJohannesburg

Where the figures come from

Genoa 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.

Genoa's sunshine is measured 80 km from the centre, at Capo Mele.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Genoa: 1991-2020 normals, Genova / Sestri (6.7 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

MeasureGenoaJohannesburg
Official languageItalianEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign Language
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Rand (ZAR)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzCMN230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+2
Emergency number112112
Elevation20 m1,753 m
Main airportGenoa Cristoforo Colombo Airport (GOA)7 km from centre25 non-stop destinationsO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureGenoaJohannesburg
City population558,7454,803,262
People per km²2,3252,922
Museums within 10 km5114
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Genoa 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). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.