VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
Valletta from the water, Valletta
VallettaValletta from the water

Photos: Johannesburg by K, Pexels License; Valletta by Pho Tomass, Pexels License.

Johannesburg or Valletta?

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
  • nightlife

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

Choose Valletta for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Valletta’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, Valletta 68: Valletta leads by 63 points.
Food & drink. Johannesburg 58, Valletta 55: Johannesburg leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, Valletta 76: Valletta leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, Valletta 46: Johannesburg leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg 55, Valletta 56: Valletta leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Johannesburg 52, Valletta 76: Valletta leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Johannesburg 42, Valletta 58: Valletta leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, Valletta 62: Valletta leads by 44 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, Valletta 38: Johannesburg leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, Valletta 50: Johannesburg leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg 55, Valletta 44: Johannesburg leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 28, Valletta 32: Valletta leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Johannesburg and Valletta.

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.

Valletta
Best match
55match

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

Valletta in July

32 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
JohannesburgValletta

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). Valletta: 1991-2020 normals, Luqa (5.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgValletta
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageEnglish, Maltese
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation1,753 m56 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinationsMalta International Airport (MLA)6 km from centre113 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureJohannesburgValletta
City population4,803,2625,197
People per km²2,9226,496
Museums within 10 km1416
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km23
Swim season, months above 21 °C-6 months

Where else could you go?

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