VacationSelector
The beach and pier at uShaka, Durban
DurbanThe beach and pier at uShaka
The Fortaleza San Felipe, Puerto Plata
Puerto PlataThe Fortaleza San Felipe

Photos: Durban by Ossewa, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Puerto Plata by CareAhLine, CC0.

Durban or Puerto Plata?

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

  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink
  • shopping

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

Choose Puerto Plata for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Puerto Plata’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 and Puerto Plata are level on 80.
Food & drink. Durban 60, Puerto Plata 40: Durban leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Durban 38, Puerto Plata 35: Durban leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Durban 40, Puerto Plata 38: Durban leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban and Puerto Plata are level on 68.
Day trips. Durban 38, Puerto Plata 48: Puerto Plata leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Durban 60, Puerto Plata 57: Durban leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Durban 20, Puerto Plata 30: Puerto Plata leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Durban 42, Puerto Plata 30: Durban leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Durban 72, Puerto Plata 64: Durban leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Durban 40, Puerto Plata 18: Durban leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban 30, Puerto Plata 35: Puerto Plata leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Durban and Puerto Plata.

Your match

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

Durban
Best match
49match

Wins on live music and the arts and food and drink with your weighting.

Puerto Plata
45match

Wins on day trips and getting around 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

Puerto Plata in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
67 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
DurbanPuerto Plata

Where the figures come from

Puerto Plata 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre). Puerto Plata: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puerto Plata (15.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDurbanPuerto Plata
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageSpanish
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Dominican Peso (DOP)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC-4
Emergency number112911
Elevation22 m34 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsGregorio Luperon International Airport (POP)13 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanPuerto Plata
City population595,061-
People per km²2,634-
Museums within 10 km11
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 Puerto Plata 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.