VacationSelector
The beach with its parasols and the boardwalk, Bethany Beach
Bethany BeachThe beach with its parasols and the boardwalk
The beach and pier at uShaka, Durban
DurbanThe beach and pier at uShaka

Photos: Bethany Beach by Doug Olson, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Durban by Ossewa, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Bethany Beach 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 Bethany Beach for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • families

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

Choose Durban for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

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. Bethany Beach 72, Durban 80: Durban leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Bethany Beach 35, Durban 60: Durban leads by 25 points.
Culture & sights. Bethany Beach 10, Durban 38: Durban leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Bethany Beach 12, Durban 40: Durban leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bethany Beach 48, Durban 68: Durban leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Bethany Beach 45, Durban 38: Bethany Beach leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Bethany Beach 66, Durban 60: Bethany Beach leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Bethany Beach 33, Durban 20: Bethany Beach leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Bethany Beach 28, Durban 42: Durban leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Bethany Beach 30, Durban 72: Durban leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bethany Beach 14, Durban 40: Durban leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bethany Beach 33, Durban 30: Bethany Beach leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bethany Beach and Durban.

Your match

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

Bethany Beach
36match

Wins on getting around and day trips with your weighting.

Durban
Best match
49match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Bethany Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
95 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
23 °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
Bethany BeachDurban

Where the figures come from

Bethany Beach's temperatures are measured 45 km from the centre, at Salisbury / Quail Ridge.

Bethany Beach 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. Bethany Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Salisbury / Quail Ridge (44.9 km from centre). Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBethany BeachDurban
Official language-English, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign Language
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Rand (ZAR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCMN230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+2
Emergency number911112
Elevation3 m22 m
Main airportSalisbury Ocean City Wicomico Regional Airport (SBY)45 km from centre4 non-stop destinationsKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBethany BeachDurban
City population954595,061
People per km²3182,634
Museums within 10 km01
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bethany Beach 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). 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.