VacationSelector
Durban
Hawthorne Bridge and downtown, Portland
PortlandHawthorne Bridge and downtown

Photos: Portland by Cacophony, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Durban or Portland?

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
  • families

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

Choose Portland for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Portland’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, Portland 20: Durban leads by 60 points.
Food & drink. Durban 60, Portland 68: Portland leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Durban and Portland are level on 38.
Nightlife. Durban 40, Portland 52: Portland leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban 68, Portland 84: Portland leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Durban 38, Portland 58: Portland leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Durban 60, Portland 55: Durban leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Durban 20, Portland 62: Portland leads by 42 points.
Shopping & style. Durban 42, Portland 52: Portland leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Durban 72, Portland 38: Durban leads by 34 points.
Live music & performing arts. Durban 40, Portland 55: Portland leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban 30, Portland 42: Portland leads by 12 points.
0255075100

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

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.

Portland
Best match
52match

Wins on getting around 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

Portland in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
DurbanPortland

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre). Portland: 1991-2020 normals, Portland International Airport (9.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDurbanPortland
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-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation22 m152 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsPortland International Airport (PDX)10 km from centre88 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanPortland
City population595,061652,503
People per km²2,6341,736
Museums within 10 km117
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Portland 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.