VacationSelector
Durban
The Eiffel Tower from the Trocadéro, Paris
ParisThe Eiffel Tower from the Trocadéro

Photos: Paris by Efrem Efre, Pexels License.

Durban or Paris?

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 Paris for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Paris’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, Paris 9: Durban leads by 71 points.
Food & drink. Durban 60, Paris 96: Paris leads by 36 points.
Culture & sights. Durban 38, Paris 97: Paris leads by 59 points.
Nightlife. Durban 40, Paris 80: Paris leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban 68, Paris 52: Durban leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Durban 38, Paris 92: Paris leads by 54 points.
Good for families. Durban 60, Paris 79: Paris leads by 19 points.
Getting around. Durban 20, Paris 88: Paris leads by 68 points.
Shopping & style. Durban 42, Paris 98: Paris leads by 56 points.
Affordability. Durban 72, Paris 25: Durban leads by 47 points.
Live music & performing arts. Durban 40, Paris 88: Paris leads by 48 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban 30, Paris 40: Paris leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Durban and Paris.

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.

Paris
Best match
70match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights 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

Paris in July

26 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
58 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
DurbanParis

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre). Paris: 1991-2020 normals, Paris-Montsouris (4.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDurbanParis
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageFrench
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation22 m27 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsCharles de Gaulle International Airport (CDG)22 km from centre277 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanParis
City population595,0612,103,778
People per km²2,63419,960
Museums within 10 km1251
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km14
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Durban or Paris 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.