VacationSelector
The beach and pier at uShaka, Durban
DurbanThe beach and pier at uShaka
Waterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor, Newport Beach
Newport BeachWaterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor

Photos: Durban by Ossewa, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Newport Beach by Don Ramey Logan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Durban or Newport 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

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • beaches

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

Choose Newport Beach for

  • day trips
  • families
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Newport 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, Newport Beach 70: Durban leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Durban 60, Newport Beach 50: Durban leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Durban 38, Newport Beach 20: Durban leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Durban 40, Newport Beach 33: Durban leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban 68, Newport Beach 66: Durban leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Durban 38, Newport Beach 70: Newport Beach leads by 32 points.
Good for families. Durban 60, Newport Beach 80: Newport Beach leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Durban and Newport Beach are level on 20.
Shopping & style. Durban 42, Newport Beach 62: Newport Beach leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Durban 72, Newport Beach 15: Durban leads by 57 points.
Live music & performing arts. Durban 40, Newport Beach 46: Newport Beach leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban 30, Newport Beach 44: Newport Beach leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Durban and Newport Beach.

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 culture and sights with your weighting.

Newport Beach
48match

Wins on day trips and families 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

Newport Beach in July

26 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
DurbanNewport Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre). Newport Beach: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1981-2010) normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (7.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDurbanNewport 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-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation22 m3 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)7 km from centre53 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanNewport Beach
City population595,06185,239
People per km²2,634622
Museums within 10 km14
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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