VacationSelector
Durban
The Arctic Cathedral, Tromso
TromsoThe Arctic Cathedral

Photos: Tromso by Moyan Brenn, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Durban or Tromso?

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
  • shopping

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

Choose Tromso for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Tromso’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, Tromso 8: Durban leads by 72 points.
Food & drink. Durban 60, Tromso 36: Durban leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Durban 38, Tromso 27: Durban leads by 11 points.
Nightlife. Durban 40, Tromso 38: Durban leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban 68, Tromso 92: Tromso leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Durban 38, Tromso 14: Durban leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Durban 60, Tromso 45: Durban leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Durban 20, Tromso 60: Tromso leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Durban 42, Tromso 15: Durban leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Durban 72, Tromso 11: Durban leads by 61 points.
Live music & performing arts. Durban 40, Tromso 32: Durban leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban 30, Tromso 38: Tromso leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Durban and Tromso.

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.

Tromso
35match

Wins on getting around and nature and the outdoors 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

Tromso in July

16 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
73 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
10 °Csea
24 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
DurbanTromso

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre). Tromso: 1991-2020 normals, Tromso (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDurbanTromso
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, Sámi
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Norwegian Krone (NOK)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112Police 112, ambulance 113, fire 110
Elevation22 m20 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsTromsø Airport (TOS)4 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanTromso
City population595,06179,943
People per km²2,63432
Museums within 10 km18
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Durban or Tromso 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.