VacationSelector
The Flame Towers from the seafront, Baku
BakuThe Flame Towers from the seafront
Durban

Photos: Baku by Zulfugar Karimov, Pexels License.

Baku or Durban?

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 Baku for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Durban for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Durban’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. Baku 40, Durban 80: Durban leads by 40 points.
Food & drink. Baku and Durban are level on 60.
Culture & sights. Baku 62, Durban 38: Baku leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Baku 42, Durban 40: Baku leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Baku 30, Durban 68: Durban leads by 38 points.
Day trips. Baku 45, Durban 38: Baku leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Baku 45, Durban 60: Durban leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Baku 58, Durban 20: Baku leads by 38 points.
Shopping & style. Baku 48, Durban 42: Baku leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Baku 64, Durban 72: Durban leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Baku 52, Durban 40: Baku leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Baku and Durban are level on 30.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Baku and Durban.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Baku
48match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

Durban
49match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Baku in July

30 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
5 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Durban in July

23 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
44 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
22 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
BakuDurban

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Baku: 1991-2020 normals, Mashtaga (23.2 km from centre). Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBakuDurban
Official languageAzerbaijani, Azerbaijani Sign LanguageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign Language
CurrencyAzerbaijan Manat (AZN)Rand (ZAR)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzCMN230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+4UTC+2
Emergency number102 or 112112
Elevation-28 m22 m
Main airportHeydar Aliyev International Airport (GYD)22 km from centre79 non-stop destinationsKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBakuDurban
City population2,300,500595,061
People per km²1,0752,634
Museums within 10 km501
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Baku or Durban 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.