VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
The cathedral from Piazza del Duomo, Milan
MilanThe cathedral from Piazza del Duomo

Photos: Johannesburg by K, Pexels License; Milan by Jiuguang Wang, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Johannesburg or Milan?

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

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

Choose Milan for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Milan’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, Milan 20: Milan leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Johannesburg 58, Milan 78: Milan leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, Milan 78: Milan leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, Milan 66: Milan leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg 55, Milan 65: Milan leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Johannesburg 52, Milan 91: Milan leads by 39 points.
Good for families. Johannesburg 42, Milan 55: Milan leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, Milan 79: Milan leads by 61 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, Milan 92: Milan leads by 34 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, Milan 33: Johannesburg leads by 39 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg 55, Milan 82: Milan leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 28, Milan 42: Milan leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Johannesburg and Milan.

Your match

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

Johannesburg
47match

Wins on prices with your weighting.

Milan
Best match
65match

Wins on getting around 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
11 hdaylight a day

Milan in July

30 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
70 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
JohannesburgMilan

Where the figures come from

Milan 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.

Milan's sunshine is measured 41 km from the centre, at Novara / Cameri.

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). Milan: 1991-2020 normals, Milano / Linate (8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgMilan
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageItalian
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation1,753 m138 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinationsMilan Malpensa International Airport (MXP)40 km from centre208 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureJohannesburgMilan
City population4,803,2621,354,196
People per km²2,9227,453
Museums within 10 km1488
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km24

Where else could you go?

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