VacationSelector
Durban
Rice terraces and palms at Tegallalang, Ubud
UbudRice terraces and palms at Tegallalang

Photos: Ubud by Pinterpandai, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Durban or Ubud?

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
  • nightlife
  • families

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

Choose Ubud for

  • wellness
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Ubud’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, Ubud 38: Durban leads by 42 points.
Food & drink. Durban and Ubud are level on 60.
Culture & sights. Durban 38, Ubud 58: Ubud leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Durban 40, Ubud 15: Durban leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban 68, Ubud 80: Ubud leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Durban 38, Ubud 72: Ubud leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Durban 60, Ubud 48: Durban leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Durban 20, Ubud 10: Durban leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Durban 42, Ubud 52: Ubud leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Durban 72, Ubud 80: Ubud leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Durban 40, Ubud 47: Ubud leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban 30, Ubud 96: Ubud leads by 66 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Durban
49match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Ubud
Best match
55match

Wins on wellness 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

Ubud in July

29 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
110 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
27 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
DurbanUbud

Where the figures come from

Ubud's temperatures are measured 29 km from the centre, at Denpasar / Ngurah-Rai.

Ubud's station stands 209 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Ubud 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). Ubud: 1991-2020 normals, Denpasar / Ngurah-Rai (29 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDurbanUbud
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageIndonesian
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Rupiah (IDR)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCF50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+8
Emergency number112112
Elevation22 m210 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsDenpasar I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport (DPS)29 km from centre64 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanUbud
City population595,061-
People per km²2,634-
Museums within 10 km114
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Ubud 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.