VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
The Three Graces at Pier Head, Liverpool
LiverpoolThe Three Graces at Pier Head

Photos: Johannesburg by K, Pexels License; Liverpool by Marathon, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Johannesburg or Liverpool?

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
  • food and drink
  • shopping

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

Choose Liverpool for

  • getting around
  • beaches
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Liverpool’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, Liverpool 22: Liverpool leads by 17 points.
Food & drink. Johannesburg 58, Liverpool 48: Johannesburg leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, Liverpool 64: Liverpool leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, Liverpool 66: Liverpool leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg 55, Liverpool 52: Johannesburg leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Johannesburg 52, Liverpool 64: Liverpool leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Johannesburg 42, Liverpool 55: Liverpool leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, Liverpool 68: Liverpool leads by 50 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, Liverpool 52: Johannesburg leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, Liverpool 50: Johannesburg leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg 55, Liverpool 66: Liverpool leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 28, Liverpool 22: Johannesburg leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Johannesburg and Liverpool.

Your match

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

Johannesburg
47match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

Liverpool
Best match
52match

Wins on getting around and beaches 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

Liverpool in July

21 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
67 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
JohannesburgLiverpool

Where the figures come from

Liverpool's temperatures are measured 47 km from the centre, at Manchester Airport.

Liverpool 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. Johannesburg: 2005-2019 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Johannesburg B / Roosevelt Park (7.3 km from centre). Liverpool: 1991-2020 normals, Manchester Airport (47.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgLiverpool
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageEnglish
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+2UTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112 or 999
Elevation1,753 m70 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinationsLiverpool John Lennon Airport (LPL)12 km from centre75 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureJohannesburgLiverpool
City population4,803,262513,441
People per km²2,9224,592
Museums within 10 km1431
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Johannesburg or Liverpool 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.