VacationSelector
Durban
A galleon on the Motława below the old crane, Gdansk
GdanskA galleon on the Motława below the old crane

Photos: Gdansk by Nikater, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Durban or Gdansk?

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
  • food and drink
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Gdansk for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Gdansk’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, Gdansk 40: Durban leads by 40 points.
Food & drink. Durban 60, Gdansk 50: Durban leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Durban 38, Gdansk 68: Gdansk leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Durban 40, Gdansk 52: Gdansk leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban 68, Gdansk 58: Durban leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Durban 38, Gdansk 62: Gdansk leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Durban 60, Gdansk 62: Gdansk leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Durban 20, Gdansk 72: Gdansk leads by 52 points.
Shopping & style. Durban and Gdansk are level on 42.
Affordability. Durban 72, Gdansk 68: Durban leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Durban 40, Gdansk 52: Gdansk leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban 30, Gdansk 36: Gdansk leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Durban and Gdansk.

Your match

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

Durban
49match

Wins on beaches and food and drink with your weighting.

Gdansk
Best match
55match

Wins on getting around 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

Gdansk in July

22 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
85 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
DurbanGdansk

Where the figures come from

Gdansk 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.

Gdansk's sunshine is measured 55 km from the centre, at Elblag.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre). Gdansk: 1991-2020 normals, Gdansk-Rebiechowo (12.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDurbanGdansk
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguagePolish
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Zloty (PLN)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCE50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation22 m11 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsGdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport (GDN)13 km from centre72 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanGdansk
City population595,061487,834
People per km²2,634714
Museums within 10 km134
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
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 Gdansk 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.