VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
Hanok houses in Bukchon, Seoul
SeoulHanok houses in Bukchon

Photos: Johannesburg by K, Pexels License; Seoul by 거열 박, Pexels License.

Johannesburg or Seoul?

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

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

Choose Seoul for

  • getting around
  • wellness
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Seoul’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, Seoul 18: Seoul leads by 13 points.
Food & drink. Johannesburg 58, Seoul 84: Seoul leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, Seoul 75: Seoul leads by 19 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, Seoul 84: Seoul leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg 55, Seoul 75: Seoul leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Johannesburg 52, Seoul 77: Seoul leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Johannesburg 42, Seoul 80: Seoul leads by 38 points.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, Seoul 87: Seoul leads by 69 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, Seoul 85: Seoul leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, Seoul 50: Johannesburg leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg 55, Seoul 63: Seoul leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 28, Seoul 75: Seoul leads by 47 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Johannesburg and Seoul.

Your match

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

Johannesburg
47match

Wins on prices with your weighting.

Seoul
Best match
71match

Wins on getting around and wellness 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

Seoul in July

29 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
422 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
JohannesburgSeoul

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). Seoul: 1991-2020 normals, Seoul (2.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgSeoul
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageKorean, Korean Sign Language
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Won (KRW)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCF220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+9
Emergency number112Police 112, ambulance 119, fire 119
Elevation1,753 m38 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinationsIncheon International Airport (ICN)49 km from centre162 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days18 days

By the numbers

MeasureJohannesburgSeoul
City population4,803,2629,668,465
People per km²2,92215,973
Museums within 10 km1481
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km25
Swim season, months above 21 °C-2 months

Where else could you go?

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