VacationSelector
The twin towers of the cathedral over Plaza de Armas, Guadalajara
GuadalajaraThe twin towers of the cathedral over Plaza de Armas
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower

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

Guadalajara 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 Guadalajara for

  • getting around
  • food and drink
  • day trips

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

Choose Johannesburg for

Johannesburg does not lead in any category we score.

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. Guadalajara and Johannesburg are level on 5.
Food & drink. Guadalajara 75, Johannesburg 58: Guadalajara leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Guadalajara 62, Johannesburg 56: Guadalajara leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Guadalajara 68, Johannesburg 62: Guadalajara leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Guadalajara and Johannesburg are level on 55.
Day trips. Guadalajara 66, Johannesburg 52: Guadalajara leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Guadalajara 55, Johannesburg 42: Guadalajara leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Guadalajara 40, Johannesburg 18: Guadalajara leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Guadalajara 60, Johannesburg 58: Guadalajara leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Guadalajara 78, Johannesburg 72: Guadalajara leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Guadalajara 60, Johannesburg 55: Guadalajara leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Guadalajara 35, Johannesburg 28: Guadalajara leads by 7 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Guadalajara and Johannesburg.

Your match

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

Guadalajara
Best match
55match

Wins on getting around and food and drink with your weighting.

Johannesburg
47match

Has no clear advantage with the weighting you have chosen.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Guadalajara in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
205 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 hdaylight a day

Johannesburg in July

19 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
GuadalajaraJohannesburg

Where the figures come from

Guadalajara has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Guadalajara: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Johannesburg: 2005-2019 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Johannesburg B / Roosevelt Park (7.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGuadalajaraJohannesburg
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign Language
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Rand (ZAR)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCMN230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+2
Emergency number911112
Elevation1,536 m1,753 m
Main airportGuadalajara International Airport (GDL)17 km from centre70 non-stop destinationsO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureGuadalajaraJohannesburg
City population1,385,6214,803,262
People per km²9,5562,922
Museums within 10 km1714
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Guadalajara or Johannesburg somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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.