VacationSelector
Durban
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Durban or Wellington?

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

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

Choose Wellington for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Wellington’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, Wellington 33: Durban leads by 47 points.
Food & drink. Durban 60, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Durban 38, Wellington 44: Wellington leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Durban 40, Wellington 45: Wellington leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban 68, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Durban 38, Wellington 40: Wellington leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Durban 60, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Durban 20, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 48 points.
Shopping & style. Durban and Wellington are level on 42.
Affordability. Durban 72, Wellington 33: Durban leads by 39 points.
Live music & performing arts. Durban 40, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban and Wellington are level on 30.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Durban and Wellington.

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 prices with your weighting.

Wellington
49match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts 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

Wellington in July

12 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
111 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
DurbanWellington

Where the figures come from

Wellington's sunshine is measured 47 km from the centre, at Paraparaumu Aerodrome.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDurbanWellington
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyRand (ZAR)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number112111
Elevation22 m0 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanWellington
City population595,061216,200
People per km²2,634487
Museums within 10 km112
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 Wellington 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.