VacationSelector
Durban
Rabelo boats on the Douro and the Ribeira, Porto
PortoRabelo boats on the Douro and the Ribeira

Photos: Porto by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Durban or Porto?

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 Porto for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Porto’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, Porto 40: Durban leads by 40 points.
Food & drink. Durban 60, Porto 70: Porto leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Durban 38, Porto 68: Porto leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Durban 40, Porto 65: Porto leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban 68, Porto 64: Durban leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Durban 38, Porto 79: Porto leads by 41 points.
Good for families. Durban 60, Porto 52: Durban leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Durban 20, Porto 66: Porto leads by 46 points.
Shopping & style. Durban 42, Porto 52: Porto leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Durban 72, Porto 62: Durban leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Durban 40, Porto 52: Porto leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban 30, Porto 34: Porto leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Durban and Porto.

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.

Porto
Best match
59match

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

Porto in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
22 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
17 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
DurbanPorto

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre). Porto: 1991-2020 normals, Porto / Serra Do Pilar (2.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDurbanPorto
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguagePortuguese
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation22 m104 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsFrancisco de Sá Carneiro Airport (OPO)12 km from centre134 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanPorto
City population595,061273,476
People per km²2,6346,606
Museums within 10 km142
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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