VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
Rabelo boats on the Douro and the Ribeira, Porto
PortoRabelo boats on the Douro and the Ribeira

Photos: Johannesburg by K, Pexels License; Porto by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Johannesburg or Porto?

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
  • shopping
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Porto for

  • getting around
  • beaches
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Porto’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, Porto 40: Porto leads by 35 points.
Food & drink. Johannesburg 58, Porto 70: Porto leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, Porto 68: Porto leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, Porto 65: Porto leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg 55, Porto 64: Porto leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Johannesburg 52, Porto 79: Porto leads by 27 points.
Good for families. Johannesburg 42, Porto 52: Porto leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, Porto 66: Porto leads by 48 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, Porto 52: Johannesburg leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, Porto 62: Johannesburg leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg 55, Porto 52: Johannesburg leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 28, Porto 34: Porto leads by 6 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Johannesburg and Porto.

Your match

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

Johannesburg
47match

Wins on prices and shopping with your weighting.

Porto
Best match
59match

Wins on getting around and beaches 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

Porto in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
22 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
17 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
JohannesburgPorto

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). Porto: 1991-2020 normals, Porto / Serra Do Pilar (2.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgPorto
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguagePortuguese
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation1,753 m104 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinationsFrancisco de Sá Carneiro Airport (OPO)12 km from centre134 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureJohannesburgPorto
City population4,803,262273,476
People per km²2,9226,606
Museums within 10 km1442
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km23
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 Porto 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.