VacationSelector
Durban
Palacio Salvo under a blue sky, Montevideo
MontevideoPalacio Salvo under a blue sky

Photos: Montevideo by Andrés Franchi Ugart…, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Durban or Montevideo?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices
  • beaches

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

Choose Montevideo for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Montevideo’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, Montevideo 55: Durban leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Durban 60, Montevideo 57: Durban leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Durban 38, Montevideo 54: Montevideo leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Durban 40, Montevideo 50: Montevideo leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban 68, Montevideo 34: Durban leads by 34 points.
Day trips. Durban 38, Montevideo 55: Montevideo leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Durban 60, Montevideo 55: Durban leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Durban 20, Montevideo 54: Montevideo leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. Durban 42, Montevideo 36: Durban leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Durban 72, Montevideo 42: Durban leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Durban 40, Montevideo 57: Montevideo leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban 30, Montevideo 38: Montevideo leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Durban and Montevideo.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Durban
49match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and prices with your weighting.

Montevideo
49match

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

Montevideo in July

15 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
99 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
11 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
DurbanMontevideo

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre). Montevideo: 1991-2020 normals, Carrasco (19.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDurbanMontevideo
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign Language-
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Peso Uruguayo (UYU)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCFIL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC-3
Emergency number112911
Elevation22 m41 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsCarrasco General Cesáreo L. Berisso International Airport (MVD)17 km from centre15 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanMontevideo
City population595,0611,302,954
People per km²2,6341,785
Museums within 10 km136
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Durban or Montevideo 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.