VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
Waterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor, Newport Beach
Newport BeachWaterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor

Photos: Johannesburg by K, Pexels License; Newport Beach by Don Ramey Logan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Johannesburg or Newport Beach?

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
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

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

Choose Newport Beach for

  • beaches
  • families
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Newport Beach’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, Newport Beach 70: Newport Beach leads by 65 points.
Food & drink. Johannesburg 58, Newport Beach 50: Johannesburg leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, Newport Beach 20: Johannesburg leads by 36 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, Newport Beach 33: Johannesburg leads by 29 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg 55, Newport Beach 66: Newport Beach leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Johannesburg 52, Newport Beach 70: Newport Beach leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Johannesburg 42, Newport Beach 80: Newport Beach leads by 38 points.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, Newport Beach 20: Newport Beach leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, Newport Beach 62: Newport Beach leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, Newport Beach 15: Johannesburg leads by 57 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg 55, Newport Beach 46: Johannesburg leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 28, Newport Beach 44: Newport Beach leads by 16 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Johannesburg and Newport Beach.

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 culture and sights with your weighting.

Newport Beach
48match

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

Newport Beach in July

26 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
JohannesburgNewport Beach

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). Newport Beach: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1981-2010) normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (7.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgNewport Beach
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-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation1,753 m3 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre83 non-stop destinationsJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)7 km from centre53 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureJohannesburgNewport Beach
City population4,803,26285,239
People per km²2,922622
Museums within 10 km144
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

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