VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
Palm Springs

Photos: Johannesburg by K, Pexels License.

Johannesburg or Palm Springs?

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
  • food and drink

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

Choose Palm Springs for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Palm Springs’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, Palm Springs 7: Palm Springs leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Johannesburg 58, Palm Springs 40: Johannesburg leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, Palm Springs 42: Johannesburg leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, Palm Springs 36: Johannesburg leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg 55, Palm Springs 78: Palm Springs leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Johannesburg 52, Palm Springs 38: Johannesburg leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Johannesburg 42, Palm Springs 40: Johannesburg leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, Palm Springs 22: Palm Springs leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, Palm Springs 44: Johannesburg leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, Palm Springs 32: Johannesburg leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg 55, Palm Springs 40: Johannesburg leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 28, Palm Springs 80: Palm Springs leads by 52 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Johannesburg and Palm Springs.

Your match

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

Johannesburg
Best match
47match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

Palm Springs
42match

Wins on wellness and nature and the outdoors 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

Palm Springs in July

42 °Cdaytime high
28 °Cnight-time low
5 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
JohannesburgPalm Springs

Where the figures come from

Palm Springs 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). Palm Springs: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Palm Springs (2.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgPalm Springs
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 m146 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinationsPalm Springs International Airport (PSP)2 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureJohannesburgPalm Springs
City population4,803,26244,575
People per km²2,922181
Museums within 10 km143
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 Palm Springs 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.