VacationSelector
Skiers and chairlifts on the slopes in sunshine, Deer Valley
Deer ValleySkiers and chairlifts on the slopes in sunshine
The beach and pier at uShaka, Durban
DurbanThe beach and pier at uShaka

Photos: Deer Valley by Don Ramey Logan, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Durban by Ossewa, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Deer Valley 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 Deer Valley for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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

Choose Durban for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • 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. Deer Valley 10, Durban 80: Durban leads by 70 points.
Food & drink. Deer Valley 38, Durban 60: Durban leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Deer Valley 15, Durban 38: Durban leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Deer Valley 25, Durban 40: Durban leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Deer Valley 90, Durban 68: Deer Valley leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Deer Valley and Durban are level on 38.
Good for families. Deer Valley and Durban are level on 60.
Getting around. Deer Valley 50, Durban 20: Deer Valley leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Deer Valley 25, Durban 42: Durban leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Deer Valley 4, Durban 72: Durban leads by 68 points.
Live music & performing arts. Deer Valley 30, Durban 40: Durban leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Deer Valley 52, Durban 30: Deer Valley leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Deer Valley and Durban.

Your match

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

Deer Valley
36match

Wins on getting around and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Durban
Best match
49match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Deer Valley in July

28 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
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

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
Deer ValleyDurban

Where the figures come from

Deer Valley's temperatures are measured 82 km from the centre, at Evanston.

Deer Valley's station stands 297 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Deer Valley 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. Deer Valley: 1999-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Evanston (81.9 km from centre). Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDeer ValleyDurban
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-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC+2
Emergency number911112
Elevation2,474 m22 m
Main airportSalt Lake City International Airport (SLC)45 km from centre108 non-stop destinationsKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureDeer ValleyDurban
City population-595,061
People per km²-2,634
Museums within 10 km01
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Deer Valley or Durban somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.