VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
La Paz

Photos: Johannesburg by K, Pexels License.

Johannesburg or La Paz?

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

  • families
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose La Paz for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on La Paz’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, La Paz 3: Johannesburg leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Johannesburg 58, La Paz 50: Johannesburg leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, La Paz 52: Johannesburg leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, La Paz 38: Johannesburg leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg 55, La Paz 82: La Paz leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Johannesburg 52, La Paz 40: Johannesburg leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Johannesburg 42, La Paz 10: Johannesburg leads by 32 points.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, La Paz 45: La Paz leads by 27 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, La Paz 45: Johannesburg leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, La Paz 92: La Paz leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg 55, La Paz 35: Johannesburg leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 28, La Paz 12: Johannesburg leads by 16 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Johannesburg and La Paz.

Your match

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

Johannesburg
Best match
47match

Wins on families and nightlife with your weighting.

La Paz
42match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around 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

La Paz in July

13 °Cdaytime high
-2 °Cnight-time low
16 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
JohannesburgLa Paz

Where the figures come from

La Paz 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. Johannesburg: 2005-2019 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Johannesburg B / Roosevelt Park (7.3 km from centre). La Paz: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgLa Paz
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageSpanish, Aymara, Quechua, Guarani
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Boliviano (BOB)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzAC50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC-4
Emergency number112911
Elevation1,753 m3,640 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinationsEl Alto International Airport (LPB)6 km from centre12 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureJohannesburgLa Paz
City population4,803,262755,732
People per km²2,9221,601
Museums within 10 km1421
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Johannesburg or La Paz 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.