VacationSelector
Durban
Elizabeth Quay and the centre of Perth, Perth
PerthElizabeth Quay and the centre of Perth

Photos: Perth by Samuel Wiki, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Durban or Perth?

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
  • food and drink

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

Choose Perth for

  • getting around
  • families
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Perth’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, Perth 86: Perth leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Durban 60, Perth 58: Durban leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Durban 38, Perth 42: Perth leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Durban 40, Perth 42: Perth leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban 68, Perth 72: Perth leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Durban 38, Perth 48: Perth leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Durban 60, Perth 74: Perth leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Durban 20, Perth 55: Perth leads by 35 points.
Shopping & style. Durban 42, Perth 44: Perth leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Durban 72, Perth 28: Durban leads by 44 points.
Live music & performing arts. Durban 40, Perth 50: Perth leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban 30, Perth 38: Perth leads by 8 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Durban and Perth.

Your match

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

Durban
49match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

Perth
Best match
53match

Wins on getting around 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

Perth in July

19 °Cdaytime high
8 °Cnight-time low
145 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
20 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
DurbanPerth

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre). Perth: 1991-2020 normals, Perth (7.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDurbanPerth
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageEnglish
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+8
Emergency number112000
Elevation22 m2 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsPerth International Airport (PER)10 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanPerth
City population595,0612,141,834
People per km²2,634334
Museums within 10 km115
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Durban or Perth 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.