VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
The terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía, Santiago
SantiagoThe terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía

Photos: Johannesburg by K, Pexels License; Santiago by Rjcastillo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Johannesburg or Santiago?

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
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Santiago for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Santiago’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, Santiago 12: Santiago leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Johannesburg 58, Santiago 60: Santiago leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, Santiago 52: Johannesburg leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, Santiago 60: Johannesburg leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg 55, Santiago 83: Santiago leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Johannesburg 52, Santiago 70: Santiago leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Johannesburg 42, Santiago 57: Santiago leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, Santiago 68: Santiago leads by 50 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, Santiago 52: Johannesburg leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, Santiago 58: Johannesburg leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg and Santiago are level on 55.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 28, Santiago 37: Santiago leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Johannesburg and Santiago.

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.

Santiago
Best match
55match

Wins on getting around 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
11 hdaylight a day

Santiago in July

14 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
52 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
JohannesburgSantiago

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). Santiago: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago Q. Normal (3.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgSantiago
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageSpanish
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number112Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation1,753 m575 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)14 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureJohannesburgSantiago
City population4,803,2626,257,516
People per km²2,9227,468
Museums within 10 km1454
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Johannesburg or Santiago 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. 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.