VacationSelector
The junk Duk Ling in Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong
Hong KongThe junk Duk Ling in Victoria Harbour
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower

Photos: Hong Kong by LN9267, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Johannesburg by K, Pexels License.

Hong Kong 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 Hong Kong for

  • getting around
  • beaches
  • families

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

Choose Johannesburg for

  • prices

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. Hong Kong 50, Johannesburg 5: Hong Kong leads by 45 points.
Food & drink. Hong Kong 90, Johannesburg 58: Hong Kong leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Hong Kong 60, Johannesburg 56: Hong Kong leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Hong Kong 68, Johannesburg 62: Hong Kong leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hong Kong 80, Johannesburg 55: Hong Kong leads by 25 points.
Day trips. Hong Kong 68, Johannesburg 52: Hong Kong leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Hong Kong 75, Johannesburg 42: Hong Kong leads by 33 points.
Getting around. Hong Kong 97, Johannesburg 18: Hong Kong leads by 79 points.
Shopping & style. Hong Kong 88, Johannesburg 58: Hong Kong leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Hong Kong 27, Johannesburg 72: Johannesburg leads by 45 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hong Kong and Johannesburg are level on 55.
Wellness & relaxation. Hong Kong 42, Johannesburg 28: Hong Kong leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hong Kong and Johannesburg.

Your match

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

Hong Kong
Best match
67match

Wins on getting around and beaches with your weighting.

Johannesburg
47match

Wins on prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Hong Kong in July

31 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
381 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine 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

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Hong KongJohannesburg

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Hong Kong: 1991-2020 normals, King's Park (4.4 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

MeasureHong KongJohannesburg
Official languageStandard ChineseEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign Language
CurrencyHong Kong Dollar (HKD)Rand (ZAR)
SocketsG220 V, 50 HzCMN230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+2
Emergency number999112
Elevation7 m1,753 m
Main airportHong Kong International Airport (HKG)25 km from centre148 non-stop destinationsO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureHong KongJohannesburg
City population7,413,0704,803,262
People per km²-2,922
Museums within 10 km3914
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Hong Kong 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.