VacationSelector
The beach and pier at uShaka, Durban
DurbanThe beach and pier at uShaka
The Outback, with the Tenmile Range in the distance, Keystone
KeystoneThe Outback, with the Tenmile Range in the distance

Photos: Durban by Ossewa, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Keystone by Rudi Riet, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Durban or Keystone?

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
  • food and drink

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

Choose Keystone for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Keystone’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, Keystone 5: Durban leads by 75 points.
Food & drink. Durban 60, Keystone 27: Durban leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. Durban 38, Keystone 7: Durban leads by 31 points.
Nightlife. Durban 40, Keystone 12: Durban leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban 68, Keystone 93: Keystone leads by 25 points.
Day trips. Durban 38, Keystone 55: Keystone leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Durban 60, Keystone 66: Keystone leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Durban 20, Keystone 50: Keystone leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Durban 42, Keystone 22: Durban leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Durban 72, Keystone 12: Durban leads by 60 points.
Live music & performing arts. Durban 40, Keystone 22: Durban leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban 30, Keystone 32: Keystone leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Durban and Keystone.

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.

Keystone
34match

Wins on getting around and nature and the outdoors 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

Keystone in July

21 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
39 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
DurbanKeystone

Where the figures come from

Keystone's temperatures are measured 51 km from the centre, at Leadville / Stringtown.

Keystone's station stands 232 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Keystone 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). Keystone: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Leadville / Stringtown (50.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDurbanKeystone
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign Language-
CurrencyRand (ZAR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation22 m2,796 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsDenver International Airport (DEN)116 km from centre231 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanKeystone
City population595,0611,369
People per km²2,63413
Museums within 10 km10
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Durban or Keystone 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.