VacationSelector
Durban
Angkor Wat beyond the palms of the causeway, Siem Reap
Siem ReapAngkor Wat beyond the palms of the causeway

Photos: Siem Reap by allPhoto Bangkok, Pexels License.

Durban or Siem Reap?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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

Choose Siem Reap for

  • culture and sights
  • wellness
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Siem Reap’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, Siem Reap 5: Durban leads by 75 points.
Food & drink. Durban 60, Siem Reap 45: Durban leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Durban 38, Siem Reap 88: Siem Reap leads by 50 points.
Nightlife. Durban 40, Siem Reap 42: Siem Reap leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban 68, Siem Reap 40: Durban leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Durban 38, Siem Reap 55: Siem Reap leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Durban 60, Siem Reap 35: Durban leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Durban 20, Siem Reap 30: Siem Reap leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Durban 42, Siem Reap 38: Durban leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Durban 72, Siem Reap 88: Siem Reap leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Durban 40, Siem Reap 32: Durban leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban 30, Siem Reap 60: Siem Reap leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Durban and Siem Reap.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Durban
49match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Siem Reap
47match

Wins on culture and sights and wellness 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

Siem Reap in July

30 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
197 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
DurbanSiem Reap

Where the figures come from

Siem Reap has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre). Siem Reap: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureDurbanSiem Reap
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageKhmer
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Riel (KHR)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzACG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+7
Emergency number112Police 117, ambulance 119, fire 118
Elevation22 m18 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsSiem Reap-Angkor International Airport (SAI)39 km from centre14 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanSiem Reap
City population595,061147,866
People per km²2,634-
Museums within 10 km16
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 Siem Reap 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.