VacationSelector
Durban
Praia Mole in Florianopolis, Florianopolis
FlorianopolisPraia Mole in Florianopolis

Photos: Florianopolis by Papa Pic, CC0.

Durban or Florianopolis?

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

  • prices
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

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

Choose Florianopolis for

  • nightlife
  • wellness
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Florianopolis’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, Florianopolis 85: Florianopolis leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Durban 60, Florianopolis 58: Durban leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Durban 38, Florianopolis 33: Durban leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Durban 40, Florianopolis 60: Florianopolis leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban 68, Florianopolis 78: Florianopolis leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Durban 38, Florianopolis 50: Florianopolis leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Durban and Florianopolis are level on 60.
Getting around. Durban 20, Florianopolis 28: Florianopolis leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Durban 42, Florianopolis 33: Durban leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Durban 72, Florianopolis 60: Durban leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Durban 40, Florianopolis 28: Durban leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban 30, Florianopolis 45: Florianopolis leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Durban and Florianopolis.

Your match

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

Durban
49match

Wins on prices and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Florianopolis
Best match
52match

Wins on nightlife and wellness 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

Florianopolis in July

21 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
DurbanFlorianopolis

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre). Florianopolis: 1991-2020 normals, Florianopolis (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDurbanFlorianopolis
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguagePortuguese
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC-3
Emergency number112Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation22 m3 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsHercílio Luz International Airport (FLN)9 km from centre21 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanFlorianopolis
City population595,061587,486
People per km²2,634870
Museums within 10 km111
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months7 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Durban or Florianopolis 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.