VacationSelector
The beach and pier at uShaka, Durban
DurbanThe beach and pier at uShaka
The SkyWheel by the beach, Myrtle Beach
Myrtle BeachThe SkyWheel by the beach

Photos: Durban by Ossewa, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Myrtle Beach by The ed17, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Durban or Myrtle Beach?

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

  • food and drink
  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

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

Choose Myrtle Beach for

  • families
  • day trips
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Myrtle Beach’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, Myrtle Beach 84: Myrtle Beach leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Durban 60, Myrtle Beach 38: Durban leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Durban 38, Myrtle Beach 20: Durban leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Durban 40, Myrtle Beach 42: Myrtle Beach leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban 68, Myrtle Beach 46: Durban leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Durban 38, Myrtle Beach 50: Myrtle Beach leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Durban 60, Myrtle Beach 80: Myrtle Beach leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Durban 20, Myrtle Beach 18: Durban leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Durban 42, Myrtle Beach 38: Durban leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Durban 72, Myrtle Beach 52: Durban leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Durban 40, Myrtle Beach 30: Durban leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban 30, Myrtle Beach 28: Durban leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Durban and Myrtle Beach.

Your match

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

Durban
Best match
49match

Wins on food and drink and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Myrtle Beach
44match

Wins on families 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

Myrtle Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
172 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
DurbanMyrtle Beach

Where the figures come from

Myrtle Beach has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre). Myrtle Beach: 1971-2000 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Myrtle Beach Air Force Base (5.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDurbanMyrtle Beach
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign Language-
CurrencyRand (ZAR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation22 m8 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsMyrtle Beach International Airport (MYR)5 km from centre60 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanMyrtle Beach
City population595,06135,682
People per km²2,634591
Museums within 10 km12
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Durban or Myrtle Beach 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.