VacationSelector
The beach and pier at uShaka, Durban
DurbanThe beach and pier at uShaka
The white beach below the high-rise hotels, Orange Beach
Orange BeachThe white beach below the high-rise hotels

Photos: Durban by Ossewa, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Orange Beach by WeaponizingArchitecture, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Durban or Orange 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
  • food and drink

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

Choose Orange Beach for

  • families
  • day trips
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Orange 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, Orange Beach 86: Orange Beach leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Durban 60, Orange Beach 40: Durban leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Durban 38, Orange Beach 7: Durban leads by 31 points.
Nightlife. Durban 40, Orange Beach 30: Durban leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban 68, Orange Beach 60: Durban leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Durban 38, Orange Beach 50: Orange Beach leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Durban 60, Orange Beach 75: Orange Beach leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Durban 20, Orange Beach 15: Durban leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Durban 42, Orange Beach 25: Durban leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Durban 72, Orange Beach 38: Durban leads by 34 points.
Live music & performing arts. Durban 40, Orange Beach 32: Durban leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban 30, Orange Beach 32: Orange Beach leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Durban and Orange Beach.

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.

Orange Beach
41match

Wins on families and day trips 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

Orange Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
200 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
DurbanOrange 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). Orange Beach: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Gulf Shores / Bay Village Mobile Home Park (10.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDurbanOrange 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-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation22 m4 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsPensacola International Airport (PNS)41 km from centre27 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanOrange Beach
City population595,0618,095
People per km²2,634196
Museums within 10 km10
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months8 months

Where else could you go?

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