VacationSelector
The beach and pier at uShaka, Durban
DurbanThe beach and pier at uShaka
The arch at the entrance to the boardwalk, Ocean City, Maryland
Ocean City, MarylandThe arch at the entrance to the boardwalk

Photos: Durban by Ossewa, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Ocean City, Maryland by Dough4872, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Durban or Ocean City, Maryland?

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
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Ocean City, Maryland for

  • families
  • getting around
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Ocean City, Maryland’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, Ocean City, Maryland 78: Durban leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Durban 60, Ocean City, Maryland 40: Durban leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Durban 38, Ocean City, Maryland 14: Durban leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Durban 40, Ocean City, Maryland 45: Ocean City, Maryland leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban 68, Ocean City, Maryland 50: Durban leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Durban 38, Ocean City, Maryland 42: Ocean City, Maryland leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Durban 60, Ocean City, Maryland 78: Ocean City, Maryland leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Durban 20, Ocean City, Maryland 34: Ocean City, Maryland leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Durban 42, Ocean City, Maryland 24: Durban leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Durban 72, Ocean City, Maryland 40: Durban leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Durban 40, Ocean City, Maryland 18: Durban leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban 30, Ocean City, Maryland 22: Durban leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Durban and Ocean City, Maryland.

Your match

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

Durban
Best match
49match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Ocean City, Maryland
40match

Wins on families and getting around 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

Ocean City, Maryland in July

29 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
96 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
DurbanOcean City, Maryland

Where the figures come from

Ocean City, Maryland 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). Ocean City, Maryland: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Ocean City / Morris Mobile Home Park (10.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDurbanOcean City, Maryland
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 m2 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsSalisbury Ocean City Wicomico Regional Airport (SBY)39 km from centre4 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanOcean City, Maryland
City population595,0616,844
People per km²2,63473
Museums within 10 km10
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Ocean City, Maryland 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.