VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
The Teatro Amazonas, Manaus
ManausThe Teatro Amazonas

Photos: Johannesburg by K, Pexels License; Manaus by Jardelsliumba, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Johannesburg or Manaus?

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

  • day trips
  • shopping
  • nightlife

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

Choose Manaus for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Manaus’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, Manaus 38: Manaus leads by 33 points.
Food & drink. Johannesburg 58, Manaus 56: Johannesburg leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, Manaus 46: Johannesburg leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, Manaus 42: Johannesburg leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg 55, Manaus 86: Manaus leads by 31 points.
Day trips. Johannesburg 52, Manaus 12: Johannesburg leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Johannesburg 42, Manaus 35: Johannesburg leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, Manaus 27: Manaus leads by 9 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, Manaus 36: Johannesburg leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, Manaus 63: Johannesburg leads by 9 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg 55, Manaus 54: Johannesburg leads by 1 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 28, Manaus 20: Johannesburg leads by 8 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Johannesburg
Best match
47match

Wins on day trips and shopping with your weighting.

Manaus
43match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors 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

Manaus in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
74 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
JohannesburgManaus

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). Manaus: 1991-2020 normals, Manaus (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgManaus
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguagePortuguese
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC-4
Emergency number112Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation1,753 m92 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinationsEduardo Gomes International Airport (MAO)9 km from centre21 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureJohannesburgManaus
City population4,803,2622,303,732
People per km²2,922202
Museums within 10 km1413
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 Manaus 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.