VacationSelector
The beach and pier at uShaka, Durban
DurbanThe beach and pier at uShaka
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

Photos: Durban by Ossewa, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Durban or Tamarindo?

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
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Tamarindo for

  • wellness
  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Tamarindo’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, Tamarindo 85: Tamarindo leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Durban 60, Tamarindo 38: Durban leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Durban 38, Tamarindo 5: Durban leads by 33 points.
Nightlife. Durban 40, Tamarindo 45: Tamarindo leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban 68, Tamarindo 76: Tamarindo leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Durban 38, Tamarindo 28: Durban leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Durban 60, Tamarindo 55: Durban leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Durban 20, Tamarindo 32: Tamarindo leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Durban 42, Tamarindo 18: Durban leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Durban 72, Tamarindo 36: Durban leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. Durban 40, Tamarindo 10: Durban leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban 30, Tamarindo 45: Tamarindo leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Durban and Tamarindo.

Your match

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

Durban
Best match
49match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Tamarindo
39match

Wins on wellness 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

Tamarindo in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
129 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
DurbanTamarindo

Where the figures come from

Tamarindo's temperatures are measured 54 km from the centre, at Liberia.

Tamarindo has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre). Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDurbanTamarindo
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageSpanish
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation22 m27 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanTamarindo
City population595,0617,132
People per km²2,63457
Museums within 10 km10
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Durban or Tamarindo 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.