VacationSelector
Surfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach, Gold Coast
Gold CoastSurfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower

Photos: Gold Coast by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Johannesburg by K, Pexels License.

Gold Coast 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 Gold Coast for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Johannesburg for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • live music and the arts

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. Gold Coast 92, Johannesburg 5: Gold Coast leads by 87 points.
Food & drink. Gold Coast 47, Johannesburg 58: Johannesburg leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Gold Coast 15, Johannesburg 56: Johannesburg leads by 41 points.
Nightlife. Gold Coast 55, Johannesburg 62: Johannesburg leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Gold Coast 82, Johannesburg 55: Gold Coast leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Gold Coast and Johannesburg are level on 52.
Good for families. Gold Coast 89, Johannesburg 42: Gold Coast leads by 47 points.
Getting around. Gold Coast 45, Johannesburg 18: Gold Coast leads by 27 points.
Shopping & style. Gold Coast 40, Johannesburg 58: Johannesburg leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Gold Coast 35, Johannesburg 72: Johannesburg leads by 37 points.
Live music & performing arts. Gold Coast 30, Johannesburg 55: Johannesburg leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Gold Coast 42, Johannesburg 28: Gold Coast leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Gold Coast and Johannesburg.

Your match

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

Gold Coast
Best match
52match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Johannesburg
47match

Wins on culture and sights 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.

Gold Coast in July

22 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
59 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
11 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
Gold CoastJohannesburg

Where the figures come from

Gold Coast's sunshine is measured 75 km from the centre, at Brisbane Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Gold Coast: 1991-2020 normals, Gold Coast Seaway (13 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

MeasureGold CoastJohannesburg
Official languageEnglishEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign Language
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Rand (ZAR)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzCMN230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+10UTC+2
Emergency number000112
Elevation12 m1,753 m
Main airportGold Coast Airport (OOL)20 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureGold CoastJohannesburg
City population607,6654,803,262
People per km²4332,922
Museums within 10 km214
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Gold Coast 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). 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.