VacationSelector
A classic car in front of the Capitolio, Havana
HavanaA classic car in front of the Capitolio
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower

Photos: Havana by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Johannesburg by K, Pexels License.

Havana 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 Havana for

  • beaches
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

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

Choose Johannesburg for

  • shopping
  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Havana 64, Johannesburg 5: Havana leads by 59 points.
Food & drink. Havana 40, Johannesburg 58: Johannesburg leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Havana 77, Johannesburg 56: Havana leads by 21 points.
Nightlife. Havana 60, Johannesburg 62: Johannesburg leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Havana 34, Johannesburg 55: Johannesburg leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Havana 38, Johannesburg 52: Johannesburg leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Havana 34, Johannesburg 42: Johannesburg leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Havana 38, Johannesburg 18: Havana leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Havana 30, Johannesburg 58: Johannesburg leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Havana 58, Johannesburg 72: Johannesburg leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Havana 74, Johannesburg 55: Havana leads by 19 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Havana 22, Johannesburg 28: Johannesburg leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Havana and Johannesburg.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Havana
47match

Wins on beaches and culture and sights with your weighting.

Johannesburg
47match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Havana in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
118 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 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°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
HavanaJohannesburg

Where the figures come from

Havana 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Havana: 1991-2020 normals, Casa Blanca, La Habana (3.5 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

MeasureHavanaJohannesburg
Official languageSpanishEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign Language
CurrencyCuban Peso (CUP)Rand (ZAR)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCMN230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+2
Emergency numberPolice 106, ambulance 104, fire 105112
Elevation59 m1,753 m
Main airportJosé Martí International Airport (HAV)17 km from centre21 non-stop destinationsO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureHavanaJohannesburg
City population2,492,6184,803,262
People per km²3,4232,922
Museums within 10 km1214
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 Havana 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). 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). 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. Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.