VacationSelector
Durban
Hobart below kunanyi/Mount Wellington, Hobart
HobartHobart below kunanyi/Mount Wellington

Photos: Hobart by Gary Houston, CC0.

Durban or Hobart?

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
  • nightlife

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

Choose Hobart for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Hobart’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, Hobart 30: Durban leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Durban and Hobart are level on 60.
Culture & sights. Durban 38, Hobart 56: Hobart leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Durban 40, Hobart 30: Durban leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban 68, Hobart 85: Hobart leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Durban 38, Hobart 60: Hobart leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Durban 60, Hobart 56: Durban leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Durban 20, Hobart 45: Hobart leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Durban 42, Hobart 38: Durban leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Durban 72, Hobart 35: Durban leads by 37 points.
Live music & performing arts. Durban 40, Hobart 45: Hobart leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban 30, Hobart 40: Hobart leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Durban and Hobart.

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 beaches and prices with your weighting.

Hobart
48match

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

Hobart in July

13 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
42 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
13 °Csea
9 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
DurbanHobart

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre). Hobart: 1991-2020 normals, Hobart (2.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDurbanHobart
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageEnglish
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+10, UTC+11 in summer
Emergency number112000
Elevation22 m54 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsHobart International Airport (HBA)17 km from centre9 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanHobart
City population595,061197,451
People per km²2,634116
Museums within 10 km18
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Hobart 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.