VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
The old railway depot in the snow, Steamboat Springs
Steamboat SpringsThe old railway depot in the snow

Photos: Johannesburg by K, Pexels License; Steamboat Springs by Jeffrey Beall, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Johannesburg or Steamboat Springs?

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
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

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

Choose Steamboat Springs for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Steamboat Springs’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, Steamboat Springs 7: Steamboat Springs leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Johannesburg 58, Steamboat Springs 30: Johannesburg leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, Steamboat Springs 14: Johannesburg leads by 42 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, Steamboat Springs 20: Johannesburg leads by 42 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg 55, Steamboat Springs 88: Steamboat Springs leads by 33 points.
Day trips. Johannesburg 52, Steamboat Springs 12: Johannesburg leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Johannesburg 42, Steamboat Springs 62: Steamboat Springs leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, Steamboat Springs 46: Steamboat Springs leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, Steamboat Springs 22: Johannesburg leads by 36 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, Steamboat Springs 17: Johannesburg leads by 55 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg 55, Steamboat Springs 28: Johannesburg leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 28, Steamboat Springs 70: Steamboat Springs leads by 42 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Johannesburg and Steamboat Springs.

Your match

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

Johannesburg
Best match
47match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Steamboat Springs
35match

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

Steamboat Springs in July

28 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
31 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
JohannesburgSteamboat Springs

Where the figures come from

Steamboat Springs 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). Steamboat Springs: 2011-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Steamboat Springs / Steamboat Ii (5.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgSteamboat Springs
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, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation1,753 m2,052 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre83 non-stop destinationsYampa Valley Airport (HDN)33 km from centre17 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureJohannesburgSteamboat Springs
City population4,803,26213,224
People per km²2,922503
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 Steamboat Springs 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.