VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
Seven Mile Beach, Negril
NegrilSeven Mile Beach

Photos: Johannesburg by K, Pexels License; Negril by gustavo.kunst, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Johannesburg or Negril?

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

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • prices

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

Choose Negril for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Negril’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, Negril 93: Negril leads by 88 points.
Food & drink. Johannesburg 58, Negril 36: Johannesburg leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, Negril 8: Johannesburg leads by 48 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, Negril 40: Johannesburg leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg 55, Negril 60: Negril leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Johannesburg 52, Negril 35: Johannesburg leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Johannesburg 42, Negril 45: Negril leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, Negril 30: Negril leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, Negril 15: Johannesburg leads by 43 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, Negril 44: Johannesburg leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg 55, Negril 33: Johannesburg leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 28, Negril 52: Negril leads by 24 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Johannesburg and Negril.

Your match

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

Johannesburg
Best match
47match

Wins on culture and sights and shopping with your weighting.

Negril
41match

Wins on beaches and wellness 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

Negril in July

34 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
174 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
JohannesburgNegril

Where the figures come from

Negril's temperatures are measured 52 km from the centre, at Montego Bay / Sangster.

Negril 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.

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). Negril: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (51.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgNegril
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageEnglish, Jamaican Patois
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Jamaican Dollar (JMD)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzAB116 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+2UTC-5
Emergency number112Police 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation1,753 m10 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre83 non-stop destinationsSangster International Airport (MBJ)52 km from centre48 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureJohannesburgNegril
City population4,803,2624,500
People per km²2,922-
Museums within 10 km140
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 Negril 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.