VacationSelector
Clearwater Beach in evening light, with its hotels and pier, Clearwater
ClearwaterClearwater Beach in evening light, with its hotels and pier
The beach and pier at uShaka, Durban
DurbanThe beach and pier at uShaka

Photos: Clearwater by ajay_suresh, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Durban by Ossewa, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Clearwater 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 Clearwater for

  • day trips
  • families
  • beaches

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

Choose Durban for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

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. Clearwater 90, Durban 80: Clearwater leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Clearwater 38, Durban 60: Durban leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Clearwater 18, Durban 38: Durban leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Clearwater 34, Durban 40: Durban leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Clearwater 55, Durban 68: Durban leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Clearwater 58, Durban 38: Clearwater leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Clearwater 78, Durban 60: Clearwater leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Clearwater 28, Durban 20: Clearwater leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Clearwater 27, Durban 42: Durban leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Clearwater 35, Durban 72: Durban leads by 37 points.
Live music & performing arts. Clearwater 36, Durban 40: Durban leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Clearwater 40, Durban 30: Clearwater leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Clearwater and Durban.

Your match

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

Clearwater
45match

Wins on day trips and families with your weighting.

Durban
Best match
49match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Clearwater in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
188 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
ClearwaterDurban

Where the figures come from

Clearwater 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.

Clearwater's sunshine is measured 26 km from the centre, at Tampa International Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Clearwater: 2006-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Saint Petersburg / High Point (12.7 km from centre). Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureClearwaterDurban
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
Elevation9 m22 m
Main airportSt. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport (PIE)13 km from centre60 non-stop destinationsKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureClearwaterDurban
City population117,292595,061
People per km²1,1542,634
Museums within 10 km41
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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