VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
Elizabeth Quay and the centre of Perth, Perth
PerthElizabeth Quay and the centre of Perth

Photos: Johannesburg by K, Pexels License; Perth by Samuel Wiki, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Johannesburg or Perth?

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
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Perth for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Perth’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, Perth 86: Perth leads by 81 points.
Food & drink. Johannesburg and Perth are level on 58.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, Perth 42: Johannesburg leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, Perth 42: Johannesburg leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg 55, Perth 72: Perth leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Johannesburg 52, Perth 48: Johannesburg leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Johannesburg 42, Perth 74: Perth leads by 32 points.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, Perth 55: Perth leads by 37 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, Perth 44: Johannesburg leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, Perth 28: Johannesburg leads by 44 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg 55, Perth 50: Johannesburg leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 28, Perth 38: Perth leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Johannesburg and Perth.

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.

Perth
Best match
53match

Wins on beaches and getting around 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

Perth in July

19 °Cdaytime high
8 °Cnight-time low
145 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
20 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
JohannesburgPerth

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). Perth: 1991-2020 normals, Perth (7.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgPerth
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageEnglish
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+8
Emergency number112000
Elevation1,753 m2 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinationsPerth International Airport (PER)10 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureJohannesburgPerth
City population4,803,2622,141,834
People per km²2,922334
Museums within 10 km1415
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C-5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Johannesburg or Perth 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.