VacationSelector
Durban
The Dutch Reformed Church in Galle Fort, Galle
GalleThe Dutch Reformed Church in Galle Fort

Photos: Galle by Francisco Anzola, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Durban or Galle?

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
  • nightlife
  • families

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

Choose Galle for

  • wellness
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Galle’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 and Galle are level on 80.
Food & drink. Durban 60, Galle 50: Durban leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Durban 38, Galle 55: Galle leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Durban 40, Galle 18: Durban leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban 68, Galle 66: Durban leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Durban 38, Galle 50: Galle leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Durban 60, Galle 42: Durban leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Durban 20, Galle 35: Galle leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Durban 42, Galle 33: Durban leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Durban and Galle are level on 72.
Live music & performing arts. Durban 40, Galle 10: Durban leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban 30, Galle 70: Galle leads by 40 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Durban and Galle.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Durban
49match

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

Galle
48match

Wins on wellness and culture and sights 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

Galle in July

28 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
116 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
DurbanGalle

Where the figures come from

Galle has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre). Galle: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureDurbanGalle
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageTamil, Sinhala
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Sri Lanka Rupee (LKR)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzGM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+5:30
Emergency number112Police 119, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation22 m0 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)133 km from centre56 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanGalle
City population595,06193,118
People per km²2,634-
Museums within 10 km12
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Durban or Galle 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.