VacationSelector
The beach and pier at uShaka, Durban
DurbanThe beach and pier at uShaka
A paraglider over the beach at Ölüdeniz, Fethiye
FethiyeA paraglider over the beach at Ölüdeniz

Photos: Durban by Ossewa, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Fethiye by rheins, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Durban or Fethiye?

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 Durban for

  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink
  • prices

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

Choose Fethiye for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Fethiye’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. Durban 80, Fethiye 82: Fethiye leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Durban 60, Fethiye 45: Durban leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Durban 38, Fethiye 35: Durban leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Durban 40, Fethiye 42: Fethiye leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban 68, Fethiye 84: Fethiye leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Durban 38, Fethiye 76: Fethiye leads by 38 points.
Good for families. Durban and Fethiye are level on 60.
Getting around. Durban 20, Fethiye 50: Fethiye leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Durban 42, Fethiye 38: Durban leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Durban 72, Fethiye 62: Durban leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Durban 40, Fethiye 15: Durban leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban 30, Fethiye 55: Fethiye leads by 25 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Durban and Fethiye.

Your match

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

Durban
49match

Wins on live music and the arts and food and drink with your weighting.

Fethiye
Best match
54match

Wins on day trips and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Fethiye in July

32 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
8 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
26 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
DurbanFethiye

Where the figures come from

Fethiye's temperatures are measured 31 km from the centre, at Dalaman.

Fethiye 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. Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre). Fethiye: 2000-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Dalaman (30.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDurbanFethiye
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageTurkish
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Turkish Lira (TRY)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+3
Emergency number112112
Elevation22 m0 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsDalaman International Airport (DLM)30 km from centre61 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanFethiye
City population595,061182,200
People per km²2,634-
Museums within 10 km11
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Durban or Fethiye 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.