VacationSelector
Bryggen across Vågen, Bergen
BergenBryggen across Vågen
Durban

Photos: Bergen by Abdullah Guc, Pexels License.

Bergen 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 Bergen for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Durban for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • food and drink

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. Bergen 20, Durban 80: Durban leads by 60 points.
Food & drink. Bergen 47, Durban 60: Durban leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Bergen 55, Durban 38: Bergen leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Bergen and Durban are level on 40.
Nature & outdoors. Bergen 88, Durban 68: Bergen leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Bergen and Durban are level on 38.
Good for families. Bergen and Durban are level on 60.
Getting around. Bergen 74, Durban 20: Bergen leads by 54 points.
Shopping & style. Bergen 33, Durban 42: Durban leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Bergen 12, Durban 72: Durban leads by 60 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bergen 58, Durban 40: Bergen leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bergen 32, Durban 30: Bergen leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bergen and Durban.

Your match

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

Bergen
46match

Wins on getting around and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Durban
Best match
49match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Bergen in July

20 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
159 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
15 °Csea
18 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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
BergenDurban

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bergen: 1991-2020 normals, Bergen / Florida (1.2 km from centre). Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBergenDurban
Official languageNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, SámiEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign Language
CurrencyNorwegian Krone (NOK)Rand (ZAR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCMN230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+2
Emergency numberPolice 112, ambulance 113, fire 110112
Elevation5 m22 m
Main airportBergen Airport, Flesland (BGO)12 km from centre64 non-stop destinationsKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBergenDurban
City population291,189595,061
People per km²3,3392,634
Museums within 10 km311
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bergen 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.