VacationSelector
Durban
Galway Cathedral from the River Corrib, Galway
GalwayGalway Cathedral from the River Corrib

Photos: Galway by Dieglop, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Durban or Galway?

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

  • beaches
  • prices
  • families

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

Choose Galway for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Galway’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, Galway 28: Durban leads by 52 points.
Food & drink. Durban 60, Galway 45: Durban leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Durban 38, Galway 33: Durban leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Durban 40, Galway 50: Galway leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban 68, Galway 78: Galway leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Durban 38, Galway 56: Galway leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Durban 60, Galway 42: Durban leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Durban 20, Galway 58: Galway leads by 38 points.
Shopping & style. Durban 42, Galway 38: Durban leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Durban 72, Galway 28: Durban leads by 44 points.
Live music & performing arts. Durban 40, Galway 57: Galway leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban 30, Galway 28: Durban leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Durban and Galway.

Your match

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

Durban
Best match
49match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Galway
45match

Wins on getting around and day trips 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

Galway in July

20 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
DurbanGalway

Where the figures come from

Galway's temperatures are measured 64 km from the centre, at Shannon Airport.

Galway 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). Galway: 1991-2020 normals, Shannon Airport (64.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDurbanGalway
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageEnglish, Irish
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+2UTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation22 m25 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsShannon Airport (SNN)64 km from centre39 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanGalway
City population595,06183,456
People per km²2,6341,563
Museums within 10 km14
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Durban or Galway 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.