VacationSelector
Durban
The Opera House from the water, Sydney
SydneyThe Opera House from the water

Photos: Sydney by Bernard Spragg, CC0.

Durban or Sydney?

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

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

Choose Sydney for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Sydney’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, Sydney 95: Sydney leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Durban 60, Sydney 77: Sydney leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Durban 38, Sydney 60: Sydney leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Durban 40, Sydney 60: Sydney leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban 68, Sydney 85: Sydney leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Durban 38, Sydney 50: Sydney leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Durban 60, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Durban 20, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 55 points.
Shopping & style. Durban 42, Sydney 68: Sydney leads by 26 points.
Affordability. Durban 72, Sydney 22: Durban leads by 50 points.
Live music & performing arts. Durban 40, Sydney 73: Sydney leads by 33 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban 30, Sydney 55: Sydney leads by 25 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Durban and Sydney.

Your match

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

Durban
49match

Wins on prices with your weighting.

Sydney
Best match
66match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts 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

Sydney in July

18 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
70 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
19 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
DurbanSydney

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre). Sydney: 1991-2020 normals, Sydney Airport (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDurbanSydney
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageEnglish
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+10, UTC+11 in summer
Emergency number112000
Elevation22 m6 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsSydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD)9 km from centre99 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanSydney
City population595,0615,450,496
People per km²2,634449
Museums within 10 km138
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months6 months

Where else could you go?

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