VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
The House of the Blackheads at dusk, Riga
RigaThe House of the Blackheads at dusk

Photos: Johannesburg by K, Pexels License; Riga by Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Johannesburg or Riga?

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

  • shopping
  • nightlife
  • prices

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

Choose Riga for

  • getting around
  • beaches
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Riga’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, Riga 40: Riga leads by 35 points.
Food & drink. Johannesburg 58, Riga 52: Johannesburg leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, Riga 66: Riga leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, Riga 52: Johannesburg leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg and Riga are level on 55.
Day trips. Johannesburg 52, Riga 60: Riga leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Johannesburg 42, Riga 50: Riga leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, Riga 68: Riga leads by 50 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, Riga 45: Johannesburg leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, Riga 62: Johannesburg leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg 55, Riga 65: Riga leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 28, Riga 50: Riga leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Johannesburg and Riga.

Your match

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

Johannesburg
47match

Wins on shopping and nightlife with your weighting.

Riga
Best match
55match

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

Riga in July

24 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
87 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
18 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
JohannesburgRiga

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). Riga: 1991-2020 normals, Riga (4.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgRiga
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageLatvian
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation1,753 m6 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinationsRiga International Airport (RIX)9 km from centre93 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureJohannesburgRiga
City population4,803,262588,911
People per km²2,922-
Museums within 10 km1412
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
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 Riga 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.