VacationSelector
The Plaza de Armas with the cathedral and La Compañía, Cusco
CuscoThe Plaza de Armas with the cathedral and La Compañía
Durban

Photos: Cusco by Pedro Szekely, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Cusco 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 Cusco for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Cusco’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. Cusco 3, Durban 80: Durban leads by 77 points.
Food & drink. Cusco 56, Durban 60: Durban leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Cusco 81, Durban 38: Cusco leads by 43 points.
Nightlife. Cusco 42, Durban 40: Cusco leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cusco 86, Durban 68: Cusco leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Cusco 78, Durban 38: Cusco leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Cusco 10, Durban 60: Durban leads by 50 points.
Getting around. Cusco 48, Durban 20: Cusco leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. Cusco 52, Durban 42: Cusco leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Cusco 73, Durban 72: Cusco leads by 1 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cusco 30, Durban 40: Durban leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cusco 33, Durban 30: Cusco leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cusco and Durban.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Cusco
49match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips 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.

Cusco in July

20 °Cdaytime high
1 °Cnight-time low
5 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
11 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

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CuscoDurban

Where the figures come from

Cusco's station stands 151 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cusco: 1991-2020 normals, Cuzco (3.7 km from centre). Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCuscoDurban
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign Language
CurrencySol (PEN)Rand (ZAR)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzCMN230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+2
Emergency number111 or 911112
Elevation3,399 m22 m
Main airportAlejandro Velasco Astete International Airport (CUZ)5 km from centre6 non-stop destinationsKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCuscoDurban
City population428,450595,061
People per km²-2,634
Museums within 10 km111
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cusco 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.