VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
Lower Broadway and its honky-tonks, Nashville
NashvilleLower Broadway and its honky-tonks

Photos: Johannesburg by K, Pexels License; Nashville by Warren LeMay, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Johannesburg or Nashville?

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
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Nashville for

  • live music and the arts
  • families
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Nashville’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, Nashville 14: Nashville leads by 9 points.
Food & drink. Johannesburg 58, Nashville 62: Nashville leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, Nashville 50: Johannesburg leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, Nashville 70: Nashville leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg 55, Nashville 46: Johannesburg leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Johannesburg and Nashville are level on 52.
Good for families. Johannesburg 42, Nashville 55: Nashville leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, Nashville 30: Nashville leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, Nashville 42: Johannesburg leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, Nashville 30: Johannesburg leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg 55, Nashville 82: Nashville leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 28, Nashville 20: Johannesburg leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Johannesburg and Nashville.

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 prices and shopping with your weighting.

Nashville
46match

Wins on live music and the arts 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
11 hdaylight a day

Nashville in July

32 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
104 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
JohannesburgNashville

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). Nashville: 1991-2020 normals, Nashville Airport (9.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgNashville
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-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation1,753 m182 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinationsNashville International Airport (BNA)10 km from centre122 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureJohannesburgNashville
City population4,803,262689,447
People per km²2,922506
Museums within 10 km1412
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20

Where else could you go?

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