VacationSelector
Durban
The Cap Spartel lighthouse among palms, Tangier
TangierThe Cap Spartel lighthouse among palms

Photos: Tangier by Ideophagous, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Durban or Tangier?

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
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Tangier for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Tangier’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, Tangier 50: Durban leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Durban 60, Tangier 58: Durban leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Durban 38, Tangier 57: Tangier leads by 19 points.
Nightlife. Durban 40, Tangier 30: Durban leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban 68, Tangier 55: Durban leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Durban 38, Tangier 72: Tangier leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Durban 60, Tangier 35: Durban leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Durban 20, Tangier 40: Tangier leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Durban and Tangier are level on 42.
Affordability. Durban 72, Tangier 76: Tangier leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Durban 40, Tangier 28: Durban leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban 30, Tangier 50: Tangier leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Durban and Tangier.

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 beaches and families with your weighting.

Tangier
49match

Wins on day trips 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

Tangier in July

29 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
22 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
DurbanTangier

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre). Tangier: 1991-2020 normals, Tanger Aerodrome (9.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDurbanTangier
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageArabic, Standard Moroccan Tamazight
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Moroccan Dirham (MAD)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCE50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+1
Emergency number112Police 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15
Elevation22 m56 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsTangier Ibn Battuta Airport (TNG)11 km from centre50 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanTangier
City population595,0611,275,428
People per km²2,6346,393
Museums within 10 km16
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months3 months

Where else could you go?

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