VacationSelector
Durban
The City of Arts and Sciences, Valencia
ValenciaThe City of Arts and Sciences

Photos: Valencia by Francesco Ungaro, Pexels License.

Durban or Valencia?

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 Valencia for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Valencia’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, Valencia 78: Durban leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Durban 60, Valencia 74: Valencia leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Durban 38, Valencia 68: Valencia leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Durban 40, Valencia 66: Valencia leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban 68, Valencia 60: Durban leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Durban 38, Valencia 70: Valencia leads by 32 points.
Good for families. Durban 60, Valencia 75: Valencia leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Durban 20, Valencia 76: Valencia leads by 56 points.
Shopping & style. Durban 42, Valencia 57: Valencia leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Durban 72, Valencia 57: Durban leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Durban 40, Valencia 55: Valencia leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban 30, Valencia 42: Valencia leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Durban and Valencia.

Your match

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

Durban
49match

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

Valencia
Best match
65match

Wins on getting around 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

Valencia in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
7 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
DurbanValencia

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre). Valencia: 1991-2020 normals, Valencia (1.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDurbanValencia
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageSpanish
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation22 m15 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsValencia Airport (VLC)9 km from centre109 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanValencia
City population595,061840,792
People per km²2,6346,242
Museums within 10 km145
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months5 months

Where else could you go?

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