VacationSelector
Durban
Flinders Street Station, Melbourne
MelbourneFlinders Street Station

Photos: Melbourne by Medelam, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Durban or Melbourne?

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 Melbourne for

  • getting around
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Melbourne’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, Melbourne 50: Durban leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Durban 60, Melbourne 75: Melbourne leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Durban 38, Melbourne 57: Melbourne leads by 19 points.
Nightlife. Durban 40, Melbourne 75: Melbourne leads by 35 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban 68, Melbourne 70: Melbourne leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Durban 38, Melbourne 62: Melbourne leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Durban 60, Melbourne 73: Melbourne leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Durban 20, Melbourne 76: Melbourne leads by 56 points.
Shopping & style. Durban 42, Melbourne 70: Melbourne leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Durban 72, Melbourne 31: Durban leads by 41 points.
Live music & performing arts. Durban 40, Melbourne 72: Melbourne leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban 30, Melbourne 54: Melbourne leads by 24 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Durban and Melbourne.

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.

Melbourne
Best match
64match

Wins on getting around and nightlife 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

Melbourne in July

14 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
DurbanMelbourne

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre). Melbourne: 1991-2020 normals, Latrobe University / Kingsbury (13.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDurbanMelbourne
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageEnglish
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+10, UTC+11 in summer
Emergency number112000
Elevation22 m31 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsMelbourne Airport (MEL)19 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanMelbourne
City population595,0615,350,705
People per km²2,634535
Museums within 10 km143
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 Melbourne 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.