VacationSelector
The beach and pier at uShaka, Durban
DurbanThe beach and pier at uShaka
The red aerial tram nearing the top of Hidden Peak, Snowbird
SnowbirdThe red aerial tram nearing the top of Hidden Peak

Photos: Durban by Ossewa, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Snowbird by VeggieGarden, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Durban or Snowbird?

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
  • food and drink

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

Choose Snowbird for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Snowbird’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, Snowbird 5: Durban leads by 75 points.
Food & drink. Durban 60, Snowbird 20: Durban leads by 40 points.
Culture & sights. Durban 38, Snowbird 5: Durban leads by 33 points.
Nightlife. Durban 40, Snowbird 9: Durban leads by 31 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban 68, Snowbird 92: Snowbird leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Durban 38, Snowbird 47: Snowbird leads by 9 points.
Good for families. Durban 60, Snowbird 42: Durban leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Durban 20, Snowbird 40: Snowbird leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Durban 42, Snowbird 8: Durban leads by 34 points.
Affordability. Durban 72, Snowbird 15: Durban leads by 57 points.
Live music & performing arts. Durban 40, Snowbird 8: Durban leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban 30, Snowbird 40: Snowbird leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Durban and Snowbird.

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 prices with your weighting.

Snowbird
28match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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

Snowbird in July

22 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
DurbanSnowbird

Where the figures come from

Snowbird 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). Snowbird: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureDurbanSnowbird
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-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation22 m2,479 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsSalt Lake City International Airport (SLC)36 km from centre108 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanSnowbird
City population595,061-
People per km²2,634-
Museums within 10 km10
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 Snowbird 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.