VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
The City of Arts and Sciences, Valencia
ValenciaThe City of Arts and Sciences

Photos: Johannesburg by K, Pexels License; Valencia by Francesco Ungaro, Pexels License.

Johannesburg or Valencia?

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

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

Choose Valencia for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Valencia’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, Valencia 78: Valencia leads by 73 points.
Food & drink. Johannesburg 58, Valencia 74: Valencia leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, Valencia 68: Valencia leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, Valencia 66: Valencia leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg 55, Valencia 60: Valencia leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Johannesburg 52, Valencia 70: Valencia leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Johannesburg 42, Valencia 75: Valencia leads by 33 points.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, Valencia 76: Valencia leads by 58 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, Valencia 57: Johannesburg leads by 1 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, Valencia 57: Johannesburg leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg and Valencia are level on 55.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 28, Valencia 42: Valencia leads by 14 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Johannesburg and Valencia.

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.

Valencia
Best match
65match

Wins on beaches and getting around 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

Valencia in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
7 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
JohannesburgValencia

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). Valencia: 1991-2020 normals, Valencia (1.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgValencia
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageSpanish
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation1,753 m15 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinationsValencia Airport (VLC)9 km from centre109 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureJohannesburgValencia
City population4,803,262840,792
People per km²2,9226,242
Museums within 10 km1445
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Swim season, months above 21 °C-5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Johannesburg or Valencia 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.