VacationSelector
Durban
The terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía, Santiago
SantiagoThe terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía

Photos: Santiago by Rjcastillo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Durban or Santiago?

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 Santiago for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Santiago’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, Santiago 12: Durban leads by 68 points.
Food & drink. Durban and Santiago are level on 60.
Culture & sights. Durban 38, Santiago 52: Santiago leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Durban 40, Santiago 60: Santiago leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban 68, Santiago 83: Santiago leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Durban 38, Santiago 70: Santiago leads by 32 points.
Good for families. Durban 60, Santiago 57: Durban leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Durban 20, Santiago 68: Santiago leads by 48 points.
Shopping & style. Durban 42, Santiago 52: Santiago leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Durban 72, Santiago 58: Durban leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Durban 40, Santiago 55: Santiago leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban 30, Santiago 37: Santiago leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Durban and Santiago.

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.

Santiago
Best match
55match

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

Santiago in July

14 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
52 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
DurbanSantiago

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre). Santiago: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago Q. Normal (3.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDurbanSantiago
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageSpanish
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number112Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation22 m575 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)14 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanSantiago
City population595,0616,257,516
People per km²2,6347,468
Museums within 10 km154
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 Santiago 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.