VacationSelector
Bodrum Castle and gulets in the harbour, Bodrum
BodrumBodrum Castle and gulets in the harbour
Durban

Photos: Bodrum by Serhio Magpie, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Bodrum 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 Bodrum for

  • day trips
  • nightlife
  • getting around

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

Choose Durban for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts

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. Bodrum and Durban are level on 80.
Food & drink. Bodrum and Durban are level on 60.
Culture & sights. Bodrum 45, Durban 38: Bodrum leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Bodrum 65, Durban 40: Bodrum leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bodrum 60, Durban 68: Durban leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Bodrum 72, Durban 38: Bodrum leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Bodrum 66, Durban 60: Bodrum leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Bodrum 42, Durban 20: Bodrum leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Bodrum 45, Durban 42: Bodrum leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Bodrum 38, Durban 72: Durban leads by 34 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bodrum 32, Durban 40: Durban leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bodrum 52, Durban 30: Bodrum leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bodrum and Durban.

Your match

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

Bodrum
Best match
55match

Wins on day trips and nightlife with your weighting.

Durban
49match

Wins on prices 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.

Bodrum in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
2 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
24 °Csea
14 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

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BodrumDurban

Where the figures come from

Bodrum's temperatures are measured 43 km from the centre, at Kos Airport.

Bodrum 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. Bodrum: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Kos Airport (42.7 km from centre). Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBodrumDurban
Official languageTurkishEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign Language
CurrencyTurkish Lira (TRY)Rand (ZAR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCMN230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+2
Emergency number112112
Elevation10 m22 m
Main airportMilas Bodrum International Airport (BJV)32 km from centre83 non-stop destinationsKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBodrumDurban
City population175,000595,061
People per km²3142,634
Museums within 10 km41
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bodrum 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.