VacationSelector
Durban
The Nairobi skyline with the KICC tower, Nairobi
NairobiThe Nairobi skyline with the KICC tower

Photos: Nairobi by Lmwangi, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Durban or Nairobi?

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
  • food and drink
  • prices

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

Choose Nairobi for

  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Nairobi’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, Nairobi 4: Durban leads by 76 points.
Food & drink. Durban 60, Nairobi 48: Durban leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Durban 38, Nairobi 35: Durban leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Durban 40, Nairobi 58: Nairobi leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban 68, Nairobi 84: Nairobi leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Durban 38, Nairobi 28: Durban leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Durban 60, Nairobi 55: Durban leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Durban and Nairobi are level on 20.
Shopping & style. Durban 42, Nairobi 45: Nairobi leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Durban 72, Nairobi 60: Durban leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Durban 40, Nairobi 35: Durban leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban 30, Nairobi 25: Durban leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Durban and Nairobi.

Your match

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

Durban
Best match
49match

Wins on beaches and food and drink with your weighting.

Nairobi
41match

Wins on nightlife and nature and the outdoors 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

Nairobi in July

24 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
11 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
DurbanNairobi

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre). Nairobi: 1991-2020 normals, Nairobi ACC/FIC/RCC/MET/COM/ (13.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDurbanNairobi
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageEnglish, Swahili
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Kenyan Shilling (KES)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+3
Emergency number112Police 112/999, ambulance 112/999, fire 112/999
Elevation22 m1,661 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsJomo Kenyatta International Airport (NBO)13 km from centre60 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanNairobi
City population595,0615,545,000
People per km²2,6347,967
Museums within 10 km14
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

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