VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
The Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign, Las Vegas
Las VegasThe Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign

Photos: Johannesburg by K, Pexels License; Las Vegas by Christian David, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Johannesburg or Las Vegas?

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

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose Las Vegas for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Las Vegas’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, Las Vegas 10: Las Vegas leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Johannesburg 58, Las Vegas 68: Las Vegas leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, Las Vegas 25: Johannesburg leads by 31 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, Las Vegas 88: Las Vegas leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg 55, Las Vegas 68: Las Vegas leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Johannesburg 52, Las Vegas 25: Johannesburg leads by 27 points.
Good for families. Johannesburg 42, Las Vegas 25: Johannesburg leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, Las Vegas 38: Las Vegas leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, Las Vegas 64: Las Vegas leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, Las Vegas 35: Johannesburg leads by 37 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg 55, Las Vegas 78: Las Vegas leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 28, Las Vegas 40: Las Vegas leads by 12 points.
0255075100

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

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

Johannesburg
47match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Las Vegas
47match

Wins on nightlife and live music and the arts 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

Las Vegas in July

40 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
JohannesburgLas Vegas

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). Las Vegas: 1991-2020 normals, McCarran International Airport (8.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgLas Vegas
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign Language-
CurrencyRand (ZAR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation1,753 m610 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinationsHarry Reid International Airport (LAS)4 km from centre159 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureJohannesburgLas Vegas
City population4,803,262641,903
People per km²2,9221,843
Museums within 10 km1421
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Johannesburg or Las Vegas 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. 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.