VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
The Cloth Hall on the Main Square, Krakow
KrakowThe Cloth Hall on the Main Square

Photos: Johannesburg by K, Pexels License; Krakow by Jakub Hałun, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Johannesburg or Krakow?

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 Johannesburg for

  • shopping
  • food and drink

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

Choose Krakow for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Krakow’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. Johannesburg 5, Krakow 9: Krakow leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Johannesburg 58, Krakow 55: Johannesburg leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, Krakow 77: Krakow leads by 21 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, Krakow 68: Krakow leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg 55, Krakow 62: Krakow leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Johannesburg 52, Krakow 76: Krakow leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Johannesburg 42, Krakow 58: Krakow leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, Krakow 74: Krakow leads by 56 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, Krakow 48: Johannesburg leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg and Krakow are level on 72.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg and Krakow are level on 55.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 28, Krakow 36: Krakow leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Johannesburg and Krakow.

Your match

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

Johannesburg
47match

Wins on shopping and food and drink with your weighting.

Krakow
Best match
58match

Wins on getting around and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Johannesburg in July

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

Krakow in July

25 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
100 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
JohannesburgKrakow

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Johannesburg: 2005-2019 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Johannesburg B / Roosevelt Park (7.3 km from centre). Krakow: 1991-2020 normals, Krakow (10.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgKrakow
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguagePolish
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Zloty (PLN)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCE50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation1,753 m219 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinationsKraków John Paul II International Airport (KRK)11 km from centre132 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureJohannesburgKrakow
City population4,803,262804,237
People per km²2,9222,459
Museums within 10 km14113
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km24

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Johannesburg or Krakow 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). 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under 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.