VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
Portofino and its bay from the hillside, Portofino
PortofinoPortofino and its bay from the hillside

Photos: Johannesburg by K, Pexels License; Portofino by Michal Osmenda, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Johannesburg or Portofino?

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
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Portofino for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Portofino’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, Portofino 60: Portofino leads by 55 points.
Food & drink. Johannesburg 58, Portofino 36: Johannesburg leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, Portofino 22: Johannesburg leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, Portofino 14: Johannesburg leads by 48 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg 55, Portofino 77: Portofino leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Johannesburg 52, Portofino 76: Portofino leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Johannesburg 42, Portofino 33: Johannesburg leads by 9 points.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, Portofino 50: Portofino leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, Portofino 29: Johannesburg leads by 29 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, Portofino 9: Johannesburg leads by 63 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg 55, Portofino 7: Johannesburg leads by 48 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 28, Portofino 42: Portofino leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Johannesburg and Portofino.

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.

Portofino
38match

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

Portofino in July

27 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
JohannesburgPortofino

Where the figures come from

Portofino's temperatures are measured 31 km from the centre, at Genova / Sestri.

Portofino 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). Portofino: 1991-2020 normals, Genova / Sestri (31 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgPortofino
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageItalian
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation1,753 m20 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre83 non-stop destinationsGenoa Cristoforo Colombo Airport (GOA)32 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureJohannesburgPortofino
City population4,803,262355
People per km²2,922142
Museums within 10 km1414
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Swim season, months above 21 °C-4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Johannesburg or Portofino 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.