VacationSelector
Durban
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Durban or Samarkand?

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
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Samarkand for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Samarkand’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, Samarkand 4: Durban leads by 76 points.
Food & drink. Durban 60, Samarkand 54: Durban leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Durban 38, Samarkand 84: Samarkand leads by 46 points.
Nightlife. Durban 40, Samarkand 14: Durban leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban 68, Samarkand 40: Durban leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Durban 38, Samarkand 72: Samarkand leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Durban 60, Samarkand 30: Durban leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Durban 20, Samarkand 58: Samarkand leads by 38 points.
Shopping & style. Durban and Samarkand are level on 42.
Affordability. Durban 72, Samarkand 80: Samarkand leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Durban 40, Samarkand 24: Durban leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban 30, Samarkand 32: Samarkand leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Durban and Samarkand.

Your match

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

Durban
Best match
49match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Samarkand
45match

Wins on culture and sights 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

Samarkand in July

34 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
2 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
DurbanSamarkand

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre). Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDurbanSamarkand
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageUzbek
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Uzbekistan Sum (UZS)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCFI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+5
Emergency number112112
Elevation22 m702 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanSamarkand
City population595,061546,303
People per km²2,6345,058
Museums within 10 km111
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Samarkand 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.