VacationSelector
Durban
The railway viaduct over the canal, Castlefield, Manchester
ManchesterThe railway viaduct over the canal, Castlefield

Photos: Manchester by IIya Kuzhekin, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Durban or Manchester?

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
  • wellness

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

Choose Manchester for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Manchester’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, Manchester 9: Durban leads by 71 points.
Food & drink. Durban 60, Manchester 51: Durban leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Durban 38, Manchester 50: Manchester leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Durban 40, Manchester 72: Manchester leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban 68, Manchester 64: Durban leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Durban 38, Manchester 77: Manchester leads by 39 points.
Good for families. Durban 60, Manchester 58: Durban leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Durban 20, Manchester 68: Manchester leads by 48 points.
Shopping & style. Durban 42, Manchester 62: Manchester leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Durban 72, Manchester 42: Durban leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Durban 40, Manchester 74: Manchester leads by 34 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban 30, Manchester 15: Durban leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Durban and Manchester.

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.

Manchester
Best match
54match

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

Manchester in July

21 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
60 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
DurbanManchester

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre). Manchester: 1991-2020 normals, Manchester Airport (14.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDurbanManchester
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageEnglish
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+2UTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112 or 999
Elevation22 m38 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsManchester Airport (MAN)15 km from centre211 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanManchester
City population595,061547,627
People per km²2,6344,737
Museums within 10 km128
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
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 Manchester 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.