VacationSelector
Durban
Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan, New York
New YorkBrooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan

Photos: New York by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Durban or New York?

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
  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose New York for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on New York’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 York 50: Durban leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Durban 60, New York 92: New York leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Durban 38, New York 89: New York leads by 51 points.
Nightlife. Durban 40, New York 97: New York leads by 57 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban 68, New York 55: Durban leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Durban 38, New York 68: New York leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Durban 60, New York 70: New York leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Durban 20, New York 82: New York leads by 62 points.
Shopping & style. Durban 42, New York 97: New York leads by 55 points.
Affordability. Durban 72, New York 12: Durban leads by 60 points.
Live music & performing arts. Durban 40, New York 99: New York leads by 59 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban 30, New York 42: New York leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Durban and New York.

Your match

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

Durban
49match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

New York
Best match
71match

Wins on getting around 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 York in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
107 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
22 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
DurbanNew York

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 York: 1991-2020 normals, LaGuardia Airport (12.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDurbanNew York
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 m25 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsJohn F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)21 km from centre189 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanNew York
City population595,0618,804,190
People per km²2,6347,256
Museums within 10 km1157
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months3 months

Where else could you go?

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