VacationSelector
Durban
The old Tampa Bay Hotel across the river, Tampa
TampaThe old Tampa Bay Hotel across the river

Photos: Tampa by Ken Lund, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Durban or Tampa?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

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

Choose Tampa for

  • families
  • day trips
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Tampa’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, Tampa 70: Durban leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Durban 60, Tampa 57: Durban leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Durban 38, Tampa 42: Tampa leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Durban 40, Tampa 52: Tampa leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban 68, Tampa 55: Durban leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Durban 38, Tampa 54: Tampa leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Durban 60, Tampa 78: Tampa leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Durban 20, Tampa 22: Tampa leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Durban 42, Tampa 40: Durban leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Durban 72, Tampa 40: Durban leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Durban 40, Tampa 47: Tampa leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban and Tampa are level on 30.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Durban and Tampa.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Durban
49match

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

Tampa
49match

Wins on families 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

Tampa in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
197 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
DurbanTampa

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre). Tampa: 1991-2020 normals, Tampa International Airport (7.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDurbanTampa
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-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation22 m30 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsTampa International Airport (TPA)8 km from centre101 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanTampa
City population595,061384,959
People per km²2,634848
Museums within 10 km16
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months8 months

Where else could you go?

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