VacationSelector
Durban
A yellow tram in a narrow street, Lisbon
LisbonA yellow tram in a narrow street

Photos: Lisbon by Riccardo Toso, Pexels License.

Durban or Lisbon?

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

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

Choose Lisbon for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Lisbon’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, Lisbon 50: Durban leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Durban 60, Lisbon 75: Lisbon leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Durban 38, Lisbon 78: Lisbon leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Durban 40, Lisbon 75: Lisbon leads by 35 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban 68, Lisbon 75: Lisbon leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Durban 38, Lisbon 82: Lisbon leads by 44 points.
Good for families. Durban 60, Lisbon 62: Lisbon leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Durban 20, Lisbon 66: Lisbon leads by 46 points.
Shopping & style. Durban 42, Lisbon 60: Lisbon leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Durban 72, Lisbon 55: Durban leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Durban 40, Lisbon 60: Lisbon leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban 30, Lisbon 36: Lisbon leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Durban and Lisbon.

Your match

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

Durban
49match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Lisbon
Best match
65match

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

Lisbon in July

28 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
3 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
DurbanLisbon

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre). Lisbon: 1991-2020 normals, Lisboa / Geof (1.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDurbanLisbon
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguagePortuguese
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation22 m100 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsLisbon Humberto Delgado Airport (LIS)7 km from centre156 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanLisbon
City population595,061545,796
People per km²2,6345,453
Museums within 10 km180
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13
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 Lisbon 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.