VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
Bell Rock outside Sedona, Sedona
SedonaBell Rock outside Sedona

Photos: Johannesburg by K, Pexels License; Sedona by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Johannesburg or Sedona?

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

  • nightlife
  • prices
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Sedona for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Sedona’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, Sedona 16: Sedona leads by 11 points.
Food & drink. Johannesburg 58, Sedona 33: Johannesburg leads by 25 points.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, Sedona 20: Johannesburg leads by 36 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, Sedona 8: Johannesburg leads by 54 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg 55, Sedona 93: Sedona leads by 38 points.
Day trips. Johannesburg 52, Sedona 55: Sedona leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Johannesburg and Sedona are level on 42.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, Sedona 22: Sedona leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, Sedona 34: Johannesburg leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, Sedona 18: Johannesburg leads by 54 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg 55, Sedona 13: Johannesburg leads by 42 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 28, Sedona 82: Sedona leads by 54 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Johannesburg and Sedona.

Your match

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

Johannesburg
Best match
47match

Wins on nightlife and prices with your weighting.

Sedona
36match

Wins on wellness 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

Sedona in July

34 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
51 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
JohannesburgSedona

Where the figures come from

Sedona's station stands 153 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Sedona 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). Sedona: 2009-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sedona / West Sedona (1.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgSedona
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign Language-
CurrencyRand (ZAR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC-7
Emergency number112911
Elevation1,753 m1,319 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinationsPhoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)160 km from centre148 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureJohannesburgSedona
City population4,803,2629,684
People per km²2,922195
Museums within 10 km140
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 Sedona 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.