VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
The Grand Lisboa above the Macau skyline, Macau
MacauThe Grand Lisboa above the Macau skyline

Photos: Johannesburg by K, Pexels License; Macau by tian Jin, Pexels License.

Johannesburg or Macau?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices
  • nightlife

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

Choose Macau for

  • getting around
  • beaches
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Macau’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, Macau 24: Macau leads by 19 points.
Food & drink. Johannesburg 58, Macau 77: Macau leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, Macau 62: Macau leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, Macau 40: Johannesburg leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg 55, Macau 5: Johannesburg leads by 50 points.
Day trips. Johannesburg and Macau are level on 52.
Good for families. Johannesburg 42, Macau 48: Macau leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, Macau 60: Macau leads by 42 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg and Macau are level on 58.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, Macau 44: Johannesburg leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg 55, Macau 36: Johannesburg leads by 19 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 28, Macau 40: Macau leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Johannesburg and Macau.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Johannesburg
47match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and prices with your weighting.

Macau
46match

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

Macau in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
281 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
JohannesburgMacau

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). Macau: 1991-2020 normals, Taipa (3.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgMacau
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguagePortuguese, Cantonese, Standard Chinese
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Pataca (MOP)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzFGM220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+8
Emergency number112999
Elevation1,753 m22 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinationsMacau International Airport (MFM)7 km from centre41 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureJohannesburgMacau
City population4,803,262682,100
People per km²2,9225,916
Museums within 10 km1428
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C-8 months

Where else could you go?

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