VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
The CN Tower and skyline from the Toronto Islands, Toronto
TorontoThe CN Tower and skyline from the Toronto Islands

Photos: Johannesburg by K, Pexels License; Toronto by Dillan Payne, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Johannesburg or Toronto?

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
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Toronto for

  • getting around
  • families
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Toronto’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, Toronto 34: Toronto leads by 29 points.
Food & drink. Johannesburg 58, Toronto 70: Toronto leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, Toronto 50: Johannesburg leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg and Toronto are level on 62.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg 55, Toronto 52: Johannesburg leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Johannesburg 52, Toronto 50: Johannesburg leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Johannesburg 42, Toronto 74: Toronto leads by 32 points.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, Toronto 65: Toronto leads by 47 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, Toronto 66: Toronto leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, Toronto 34: Johannesburg leads by 38 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg 55, Toronto 72: Toronto leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 28, Toronto 33: Toronto leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Johannesburg and Toronto.

Your match

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

Johannesburg
47match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Toronto
Best match
55match

Wins on getting around and families 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

Toronto in July

27 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
83 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
JohannesburgToronto

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). Toronto: 1991-2020 normals, Toronto City (1.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgToronto
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageFrench, English
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation1,753 m76 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinationsToronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ)20 km from centre191 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureJohannesburgToronto
City population4,803,2622,794,356
People per km²2,9224,434
Museums within 10 km1432
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C-1 month

Where else could you go?

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