VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
Barlas Island in Honda Bay, Puerto Princesa
Puerto PrincesaBarlas Island in Honda Bay

Photos: Johannesburg by K, Pexels License; Puerto Princesa by Ray in Manila, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Johannesburg or Puerto Princesa?

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

  • live music and the arts
  • day trips
  • shopping

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

Choose Puerto Princesa for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Puerto Princesa’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, Puerto Princesa 58: Puerto Princesa leads by 53 points.
Food & drink. Johannesburg 58, Puerto Princesa 38: Johannesburg leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, Puerto Princesa 22: Johannesburg leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, Puerto Princesa 26: Johannesburg leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg 55, Puerto Princesa 80: Puerto Princesa leads by 25 points.
Day trips. Johannesburg 52, Puerto Princesa 12: Johannesburg leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Johannesburg 42, Puerto Princesa 45: Puerto Princesa leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, Puerto Princesa 30: Puerto Princesa leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, Puerto Princesa 20: Johannesburg leads by 38 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, Puerto Princesa 78: Puerto Princesa leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg 55, Puerto Princesa 10: Johannesburg leads by 45 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 28, Puerto Princesa 40: Puerto Princesa leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Johannesburg and Puerto Princesa.

Your match

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

Johannesburg
Best match
47match

Wins on live music and the arts and day trips with your weighting.

Puerto Princesa
38match

Wins on beaches 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
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Puerto Princesa in July

29 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
216 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
JohannesburgPuerto Princesa

Where the figures come from

Puerto Princesa has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

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). Puerto Princesa: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgPuerto Princesa
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageEnglish, Filipino, Taglish
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Philippine Peso (PHP)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzABC220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+8
Emergency number112911
Elevation1,753 m98 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre83 non-stop destinationsPuerto Princesa International Airport / PAF Antonio Bautista Air Base (PPS)2 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days18 days

By the numbers

MeasureJohannesburgPuerto Princesa
City population4,803,262316,384
People per km²2,922133
Museums within 10 km141
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Johannesburg or Puerto Princesa 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.