VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
The Opera House on the fjord, Oslo
OsloThe Opera House on the fjord

Photos: Johannesburg by K, Pexels License; Oslo by Beata May, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Johannesburg or Oslo?

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
  • nightlife
  • shopping

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

Choose Oslo for

  • getting around
  • wellness
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Oslo’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, Oslo 36: Oslo leads by 31 points.
Food & drink. Johannesburg 58, Oslo 55: Johannesburg leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, Oslo 66: Oslo leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, Oslo 48: Johannesburg leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg 55, Oslo 82: Oslo leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Johannesburg and Oslo are level on 52.
Good for families. Johannesburg 42, Oslo 63: Oslo leads by 21 points.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, Oslo 85: Oslo leads by 67 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, Oslo 50: Johannesburg leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, Oslo 14: Johannesburg leads by 58 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg 55, Oslo 62: Oslo leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 28, Oslo 60: Oslo leads by 32 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Johannesburg and Oslo.

Your match

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

Johannesburg
47match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

Oslo
Best match
56match

Wins on getting around 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

Oslo in July

23 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
86 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
18 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
JohannesburgOslo

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). Oslo: 1991-2020 normals, Oslo-Blindern (4.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgOslo
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, Sámi
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Norwegian Krone (NOK)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112Police 112, ambulance 113, fire 110
Elevation1,753 m23 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinationsOslo-Gardermoen International Airport (OSL)37 km from centre147 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureJohannesburgOslo
City population4,803,262717,710
People per km²2,922-
Museums within 10 km1460
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 Oslo 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.