VacationSelector
Durban
The fountain on Plaza Mayor, Lima
LimaThe fountain on Plaza Mayor

Photos: Lima by James C., CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Durban or Lima?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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

Choose Lima for

  • food and drink
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Lima’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, Lima 42: Durban leads by 38 points.
Food & drink. Durban 60, Lima 88: Lima leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Durban 38, Lima 66: Lima leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Durban 40, Lima 62: Lima leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban 68, Lima 45: Durban leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Durban 38, Lima 34: Durban leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Durban 60, Lima 42: Durban leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Durban 20, Lima 35: Lima leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Durban 42, Lima 52: Lima leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Durban 72, Lima 70: Durban leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Durban 40, Lima 53: Lima leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban 30, Lima 25: Durban leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Durban and Lima.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Durban
49match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Lima
51match

Wins on food and drink 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

Lima in July

19 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
1 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
DurbanLima

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre). Lima: 1991-2020 normals, Lima-Callao / Aerop. Internacional Jorgechavez (10.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDurbanLima
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageSpanish, Aymara, Quechua
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Sol (PEN)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzABC220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC-5
Emergency number112111 or 911
Elevation22 m154 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsJorge Chávez International Airport (LIM)9 km from centre61 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanLima
City population595,0619,943,800
People per km²2,6343,721
Museums within 10 km147
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months2 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Durban or Lima 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.