VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
A lifeguard stand on South Beach, Miami
MiamiA lifeguard stand on South Beach

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

Johannesburg or Miami?

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
  • day trips

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

Choose Miami for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Miami’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, Miami 90: Miami leads by 85 points.
Food & drink. Johannesburg 58, Miami 72: Miami leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, Miami 57: Miami leads by 1 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, Miami 82: Miami leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg 55, Miami 64: Miami leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Johannesburg 52, Miami 42: Johannesburg leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Johannesburg 42, Miami 64: Miami leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, Miami 35: Miami leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, Miami 71: Miami leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, Miami 27: Johannesburg leads by 45 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg and Miami are level on 55.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 28, Miami 44: Miami leads by 16 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Johannesburg and Miami.

Your match

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

Johannesburg
47match

Wins on prices and day trips with your weighting.

Miami
Best match
59match

Wins on beaches and families 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

Miami in July

33 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
186 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
JohannesburgMiami

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). Miami: 1991-2020 normals, Miami International Airport (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgMiami
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-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation1,753 m2 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinationsMiami International Airport (MIA)7 km from centre198 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureJohannesburgMiami
City population4,803,262442,241
People per km²2,9223,046
Museums within 10 km1417
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

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