VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
The opera house on Place de la Comédie, Montpellier
MontpellierThe opera house on Place de la Comédie

Photos: Johannesburg by K, Pexels License; Montpellier by Peter, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Johannesburg or Montpellier?

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
  • shopping
  • nightlife

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

Choose Montpellier for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Montpellier’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, Montpellier 64: Montpellier leads by 59 points.
Food & drink. Johannesburg 58, Montpellier 64: Montpellier leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, Montpellier 60: Montpellier leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, Montpellier 56: Johannesburg leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg 55, Montpellier 72: Montpellier leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Johannesburg 52, Montpellier 85: Montpellier leads by 33 points.
Good for families. Johannesburg 42, Montpellier 62: Montpellier leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, Montpellier 74: Montpellier leads by 56 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, Montpellier 47: Johannesburg leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, Montpellier 50: Johannesburg leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg 55, Montpellier 63: Montpellier leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 28, Montpellier 42: Montpellier leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Johannesburg and Montpellier.

Your match

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

Johannesburg
47match

Wins on prices and shopping with your weighting.

Montpellier
Best match
62match

Wins on beaches and getting around 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

Montpellier in July

30 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
17 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
JohannesburgMontpellier

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). Montpellier: 1991-2020 normals, Montpellier (7.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgMontpellier
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageFrench
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation1,753 m7 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinationsMontpellier-Méditerranée Airport (MPL)8 km from centre41 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureJohannesburgMontpellier
City population4,803,262310,240
People per km²2,9225,452
Museums within 10 km1414
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Swim season, months above 21 °C-2 months

Where else could you go?

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