VacationSelector
Durban
The steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi, New Orleans
New OrleansThe steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi

Photos: New Orleans by Bernard Spragg, CC0.

Durban or New Orleans?

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
  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose New Orleans for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on New Orleans’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, New Orleans 14: Durban leads by 66 points.
Food & drink. Durban 60, New Orleans 84: New Orleans leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Durban 38, New Orleans 67: New Orleans leads by 29 points.
Nightlife. Durban 40, New Orleans 85: New Orleans leads by 45 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban 68, New Orleans 42: Durban leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Durban 38, New Orleans 52: New Orleans leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Durban 60, New Orleans 55: Durban leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Durban 20, New Orleans 55: New Orleans leads by 35 points.
Shopping & style. Durban 42, New Orleans 54: New Orleans leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Durban 72, New Orleans 40: Durban leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Durban 40, New Orleans 80: New Orleans leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban 30, New Orleans 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 New Orleans.

Your match

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

Durban
49match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

New Orleans
Best match
54match

Wins on nightlife and live music and the arts 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

New Orleans in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
169 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
DurbanNew Orleans

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre). New Orleans: 1991-2020 normals, New Orleans Airport (2.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDurbanNew Orleans
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-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation22 m-2 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsLouis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY)18 km from centre51 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanNew Orleans
City population595,061383,997
People per km²2,634423
Museums within 10 km116
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months7 months

Where else could you go?

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