VacationSelector
The beach and pier at uShaka, Durban
DurbanThe beach and pier at uShaka
The Sanctuary of Truth by the sea, Pattaya
PattayaThe Sanctuary of Truth by the sea

Photos: Durban by Ossewa, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Pattaya by Matrix, Pexels License.

Durban or Pattaya?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Pattaya for

  • nightlife
  • wellness
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Pattaya’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, Pattaya 66: Durban leads by 14 points.
Food & drink. Durban 60, Pattaya 58: Durban leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Durban 38, Pattaya 30: Durban leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Durban 40, Pattaya 76: Pattaya leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban 68, Pattaya 40: Durban leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Durban 38, Pattaya 52: Pattaya leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Durban 60, Pattaya 55: Durban leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Durban 20, Pattaya 36: Pattaya leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Durban and Pattaya are level on 42.
Affordability. Durban 72, Pattaya 84: Pattaya leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Durban 40, Pattaya 30: Durban leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban 30, Pattaya 58: Pattaya leads by 28 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Durban and Pattaya.

Your match

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

Durban
49match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and beaches with your weighting.

Pattaya
Best match
52match

Wins on nightlife and wellness 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

Pattaya in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
102 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
DurbanPattaya

Where the figures come from

Pattaya's temperatures are measured 31 km from the centre, at Sattahip.

Pattaya 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.

Pattaya's sunshine is measured 86 km from the centre, at Bangna Agromet / Ban Khlong Samrong.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre). Pattaya: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1961-1990, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sattahip (31.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDurbanPattaya
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageThai
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Baht (THB)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+7
Emergency number112Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation22 m35 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)83 km from centre150 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanPattaya
City population595,061119,532
People per km²2,634-
Museums within 10 km10
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Durban or Pattaya 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. 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.