VacationSelector
A canoe on the turquoise lake below the mountains, Lake Louise
Lake LouiseA canoe on the turquoise lake below the mountains
The Christuskirche among palms, Windhoek
WindhoekThe Christuskirche among palms

Photos: Lake Louise by Andrew Patrick Photo, Pexels License; Windhoek by Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Lake Louise or Windhoek?

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 Lake Louise for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • wellness

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

Choose Windhoek for

  • prices
  • shopping
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Windhoek’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. Lake Louise 5, Windhoek 4: Lake Louise leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Lake Louise 20, Windhoek 36: Windhoek leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Lake Louise 7, Windhoek 30: Windhoek leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Lake Louise 4, Windhoek 25: Windhoek leads by 21 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lake Louise 97, Windhoek 52: Lake Louise leads by 45 points.
Day trips. Lake Louise 33, Windhoek 14: Lake Louise leads by 19 points.
Good for families. Lake Louise 40, Windhoek 30: Lake Louise leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Lake Louise 28, Windhoek 22: Lake Louise leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Lake Louise 6, Windhoek 30: Windhoek leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Lake Louise 9, Windhoek 62: Windhoek leads by 53 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lake Louise 3, Windhoek 18: Windhoek leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lake Louise 42, Windhoek 30: Lake Louise leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lake Louise and Windhoek.

Your match

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

Lake Louise
25match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and day trips with your weighting.

Windhoek
Best match
29match

Wins on prices and shopping with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Lake Louise in July

20 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
63 mmrain in the month
16 hdaylight a day

Windhoek in July

22 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
Lake LouiseWindhoek

Where the figures come from

Lake Louise 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. Lake Louise: 1991-2020 normals, Yoho Park (11.2 km from centre). Windhoek: 1991-2020 normals, Windhoek (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLake LouiseWindhoek
Official languageFrench, EnglishEnglish
CurrencyCanadian Dollar (CAD)Namibia Dollar (NAD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzM220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC+2
Emergency number911112
Elevation1,600 m1,650 m
Main airportCalgary International Airport (YYC)155 km from centre102 non-stop destinationsHosea Kutako International Airport (WDH)41 km from centre15 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureLake LouiseWindhoek
City population-486,169
People per km²-95
Museums within 10 km05
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 Lake Louise or Windhoek 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.