VacationSelector
Durban
The Teatro Amazonas, Manaus
ManausThe Teatro Amazonas

Photos: Manaus by Jardelsliumba, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Durban or Manaus?

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
  • day trips
  • families

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

Choose Manaus for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Manaus’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, Manaus 38: Durban leads by 42 points.
Food & drink. Durban 60, Manaus 56: Durban leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Durban 38, Manaus 46: Manaus leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Durban 40, Manaus 42: Manaus leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban 68, Manaus 86: Manaus leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Durban 38, Manaus 12: Durban leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Durban 60, Manaus 35: Durban leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Durban 20, Manaus 27: Manaus leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Durban 42, Manaus 36: Durban leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Durban 72, Manaus 63: Durban leads by 9 points.
Live music & performing arts. Durban 40, Manaus 54: Manaus leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban 30, Manaus 20: Durban leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Durban and Manaus.

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 day trips with your weighting.

Manaus
43match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and live music and the arts 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

Manaus in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
74 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
DurbanManaus

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre). Manaus: 1991-2020 normals, Manaus (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDurbanManaus
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguagePortuguese
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC-4
Emergency number112Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation22 m92 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsEduardo Gomes International Airport (MAO)9 km from centre21 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanManaus
City population595,0612,303,732
People per km²2,634202
Museums within 10 km113
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Manaus 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.