VacationSelector
Fort San Pedro in Cebu City, Cebu
CebuFort San Pedro in Cebu City
Durban

Photos: Cebu by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Cebu 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 Cebu for

  • wellness
  • prices
  • nightlife

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

Choose Durban for

  • beaches
  • families
  • 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. Cebu 60, Durban 80: Durban leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. Cebu 58, Durban 60: Durban leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Cebu 40, Durban 38: Cebu leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Cebu 46, Durban 40: Cebu leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cebu 60, Durban 68: Durban leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Cebu 44, Durban 38: Cebu leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Cebu 45, Durban 60: Durban leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Cebu 26, Durban 20: Cebu leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Cebu 44, Durban 42: Cebu leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Cebu 80, Durban 72: Cebu leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cebu 25, Durban 40: Durban leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cebu 50, Durban 30: Cebu leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cebu 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

Cebu
48match

Wins on wellness and prices with your weighting.

Durban
49match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cebu in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
205 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CebuDurban

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cebu: 1991-2020 normals, Mactan (7.1 km from centre). Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCebuDurban
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign Language
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)Rand (ZAR)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzCMN230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+2
Emergency number911112
Elevation135 m22 m
Main airportMactan Cebu International Airport (CEB)9 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCebuDurban
City population965,332595,061
People per km²3,0652,634
Museums within 10 km51
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cebu 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.