VacationSelector
Durban
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Los Angeles
Los AngelesThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier

Photos: Los Angeles by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Durban or Los Angeles?

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

  • prices
  • beaches

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

Choose Los Angeles for

  • live music and the arts
  • shopping
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Los Angeles’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, Los Angeles 60: Durban leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. Durban 60, Los Angeles 84: Los Angeles leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Durban 38, Los Angeles 66: Los Angeles leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Durban 40, Los Angeles 67: Los Angeles leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban 68, Los Angeles 80: Los Angeles leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Durban 38, Los Angeles 60: Los Angeles leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Durban 60, Los Angeles 84: Los Angeles leads by 24 points.
Getting around. Durban 20, Los Angeles 25: Los Angeles leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Durban 42, Los Angeles 80: Los Angeles leads by 38 points.
Affordability. Durban 72, Los Angeles 24: Durban leads by 48 points.
Live music & performing arts. Durban 40, Los Angeles 83: Los Angeles leads by 43 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban 30, Los Angeles 60: Los Angeles leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Durban and Los Angeles.

Your match

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

Durban
49match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

Los Angeles
Best match
64match

Wins on live music and the arts and shopping 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

Los Angeles in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
DurbanLos Angeles

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre). Los Angeles: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (18.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDurbanLos Angeles
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-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation22 m106 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)19 km from centre177 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanLos Angeles
City population595,0613,898,747
People per km²2,6342,994
Museums within 10 km139
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 Los Angeles 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.