VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
Bougainvillea and the dome of Agia Napa Cathedral, Limassol
LimassolBougainvillea and the dome of Agia Napa Cathedral

Photos: Johannesburg by K, Pexels License; Limassol by Julian Lupyan, CC0.

Johannesburg or Limassol?

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
  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Limassol for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Limassol’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, Limassol 77: Limassol leads by 72 points.
Food & drink. Johannesburg and Limassol are level on 58.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, Limassol 38: Johannesburg leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, Limassol 50: Johannesburg leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg 55, Limassol 65: Limassol leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Johannesburg 52, Limassol 76: Limassol leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Johannesburg 42, Limassol 63: Limassol leads by 21 points.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, Limassol 38: Limassol leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, Limassol 42: Johannesburg leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, Limassol 44: Johannesburg leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg 55, Limassol 32: Johannesburg leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 28, Limassol 42: Limassol leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Johannesburg and Limassol.

Your match

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

Johannesburg
47match

Wins on prices and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Limassol
Best match
52match

Wins on beaches 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
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Limassol in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
13 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
JohannesburgLimassol

Where the figures come from

Limassol 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.

Limassol's sunshine is measured 59 km from the centre, at Larnaca Airport.

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). Limassol: 1998-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Akrotiri (11.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgLimassol
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageTurkish, Greek, Modern Greek
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation1,753 m10 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinationsLarnaca International Airport (LCA)58 km from centre112 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days17 days

By the numbers

MeasureJohannesburgLimassol
City population4,803,262107,970
People per km²2,9222,405
Museums within 10 km142
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km23
Swim season, months above 21 °C-6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Johannesburg or Limassol 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.