VacationSelector
The Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken, Interlaken
InterlakenThe Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower

Photos: Interlaken by Roy Egloff, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Johannesburg by K, Pexels License.

Interlaken 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 Interlaken for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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

Choose Johannesburg for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

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. Interlaken 30, Johannesburg 5: Interlaken leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Interlaken 25, Johannesburg 58: Johannesburg leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. Interlaken 8, Johannesburg 56: Johannesburg leads by 48 points.
Nightlife. Interlaken 15, Johannesburg 62: Johannesburg leads by 47 points.
Nature & outdoors. Interlaken 97, Johannesburg 55: Interlaken leads by 42 points.
Day trips. Interlaken 78, Johannesburg 52: Interlaken leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Interlaken 72, Johannesburg 42: Interlaken leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Interlaken 80, Johannesburg 18: Interlaken leads by 62 points.
Shopping & style. Interlaken 22, Johannesburg 58: Johannesburg leads by 36 points.
Affordability. Interlaken 8, Johannesburg 72: Johannesburg leads by 64 points.
Live music & performing arts. Interlaken 15, Johannesburg 55: Johannesburg leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Interlaken 40, Johannesburg 28: Interlaken leads by 12 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Interlaken
41match

Wins on getting around and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Johannesburg
Best match
47match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Interlaken in July

24 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
126 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
15 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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
InterlakenJohannesburg

Where the figures come from

Interlaken 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. Interlaken: 2005-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Meiringen / Unterbach (19.3 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

MeasureInterlakenJohannesburg
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign Language
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)Rand (ZAR)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzCMN230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+2
Emergency number112112
Elevation571 m1,753 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)100 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureInterlakenJohannesburg
City population6,1234,803,262
People per km²1,4242,922
Museums within 10 km314
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 Interlaken 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.