VacationSelector
Durban
The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, Muscat
MuscatThe Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque

Photos: Muscat by Alli Khalil, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Durban or Muscat?

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
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

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

Choose Muscat for

  • wellness
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Muscat’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, Muscat 72: Durban leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Durban 60, Muscat 44: Durban leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Durban 38, Muscat 55: Muscat leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Durban 40, Muscat 14: Durban leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban 68, Muscat 70: Muscat leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Durban 38, Muscat 62: Muscat leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Durban 60, Muscat 52: Durban leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Durban and Muscat are level on 20.
Shopping & style. Durban and Muscat are level on 42.
Affordability. Durban 72, Muscat 45: Durban leads by 27 points.
Live music & performing arts. Durban and Muscat are level on 40.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban 30, Muscat 55: Muscat leads by 25 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Durban and Muscat.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Durban
49match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

Muscat
48match

Wins on wellness 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

Muscat in July

33 °Cdaytime high
30 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
31 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
DurbanMuscat

Where the figures come from

Muscat's sunshine is measured 32 km from the centre, at Seeb, International Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre). Muscat: 1991-2020 normals, Qaboos Port (3.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDurbanMuscat
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageArabic
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Rial Omani (OMR)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+4
Emergency number112968
Elevation22 m69 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsMuscat International Airport (MCT)31 km from centre83 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanMuscat
City population595,0611,421,409
People per km²2,634406
Museums within 10 km110
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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