VacationSelector
Durban
The Botanical Building, Balboa Park, San Diego
San DiegoThe Botanical Building, Balboa Park

Photos: San Diego by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Durban or San Diego?

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
  • beaches

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

Choose San Diego for

  • families
  • day trips
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on San Diego’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, San Diego 72: Durban leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Durban 60, San Diego 62: San Diego leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Durban 38, San Diego 50: San Diego leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Durban 40, San Diego 48: San Diego leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban 68, San Diego 77: San Diego leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Durban 38, San Diego 60: San Diego leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Durban 60, San Diego 96: San Diego leads by 36 points.
Getting around. Durban 20, San Diego 38: San Diego leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Durban 42, San Diego 44: San Diego leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Durban 72, San Diego 26: Durban leads by 46 points.
Live music & performing arts. Durban 40, San Diego 56: San Diego leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban 30, San Diego 45: San Diego leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Durban and San Diego.

Your match

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

Durban
49match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

San Diego
Best match
56match

Wins on families 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

San Diego in July

24 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
2 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
DurbanSan Diego

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre). San Diego: 1991-2020 normals, San Diego International Airport (2.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDurbanSan Diego
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 m129 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsSan Diego International Airport (SAN)3 km from centre87 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanSan Diego
City population595,0611,386,932
People per km²2,6341,438
Museums within 10 km126
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months1 month

Where else could you go?

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