VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
The Tugu monument in the centre of Yogyakarta, Yogyakarta
YogyakartaThe Tugu monument in the centre of Yogyakarta

Photos: Johannesburg by K, Pexels License; Yogyakarta by CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Johannesburg or Yogyakarta?

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

  • nightlife
  • shopping
  • families

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

Choose Yogyakarta for

  • day trips
  • wellness
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Yogyakarta’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, Yogyakarta 22: Yogyakarta leads by 17 points.
Food & drink. Johannesburg 58, Yogyakarta 62: Yogyakarta leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, Yogyakarta 68: Yogyakarta leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, Yogyakarta 32: Johannesburg leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg 55, Yogyakarta 72: Yogyakarta leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Johannesburg 52, Yogyakarta 78: Yogyakarta leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Johannesburg 42, Yogyakarta 40: Johannesburg leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, Yogyakarta 35: Yogyakarta leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, Yogyakarta 52: Johannesburg leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, Yogyakarta 92: Yogyakarta leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg 55, Yogyakarta 58: Yogyakarta leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 28, Yogyakarta 50: Yogyakarta leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Johannesburg and Yogyakarta.

Your match

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

Johannesburg
47match

Wins on nightlife and shopping with your weighting.

Yogyakarta
Best match
55match

Wins on day trips 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

Yogyakarta in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
55 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
26 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
JohannesburgYogyakarta

Where the figures come from

Yogyakarta has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

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). Yogyakarta: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgYogyakarta
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageIndonesian
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Rupiah (IDR)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCF50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+7
Emergency number112112
Elevation1,753 m113 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinationsYogyakarta International Airport (YIA)39 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureJohannesburgYogyakarta
City population4,803,262422,732
People per km²2,92213,007
Museums within 10 km1438
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km23
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Johannesburg or Yogyakarta 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.