VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
Painted colonial houses in the Pelourinho, Salvador
SalvadorPainted colonial houses in the Pelourinho

Photos: Johannesburg by K, Pexels License; Salvador by Paul R. Burley, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Johannesburg or Salvador?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

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

Choose Salvador for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Salvador’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, Salvador 84: Salvador leads by 79 points.
Food & drink. Johannesburg 58, Salvador 66: Salvador leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, Salvador 74: Salvador leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, Salvador 70: Salvador leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg 55, Salvador 52: Johannesburg leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Johannesburg 52, Salvador 56: Salvador leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Johannesburg and Salvador are level on 42.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, Salvador 42: Salvador leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, Salvador 42: Johannesburg leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, Salvador 70: Johannesburg leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg 55, Salvador 63: Salvador leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 28, Salvador 32: Salvador leads by 4 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Johannesburg
47match

Wins on shopping and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Salvador
Best match
58match

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

Salvador in July

27 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
201 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
JohannesburgSalvador

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). Salvador: 1991-2020 normals, Salvador (4.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgSalvador
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguagePortuguese
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC-3
Emergency number112Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation1,753 m8 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinationsDeputado Luiz Eduardo Magalhães International Airport (SSA)20 km from centre31 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureJohannesburgSalvador
City population4,803,2622,417,678
People per km²2,9223,489
Museums within 10 km1449
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
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 Salvador 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.