VacationSelector
Durban
The Christuskirche among palms, Windhoek
WindhoekThe Christuskirche among palms

Photos: Windhoek by Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Durban or Windhoek?

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
  • food and drink

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

Choose Windhoek for

  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Windhoek’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, Windhoek 4: Durban leads by 76 points.
Food & drink. Durban 60, Windhoek 36: Durban leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Durban 38, Windhoek 30: Durban leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Durban 40, Windhoek 25: Durban leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban 68, Windhoek 52: Durban leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Durban 38, Windhoek 14: Durban leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Durban 60, Windhoek 30: Durban leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Durban 20, Windhoek 22: Windhoek leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Durban 42, Windhoek 30: Durban leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Durban 72, Windhoek 62: Durban leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Durban 40, Windhoek 18: Durban leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban and Windhoek are level on 30.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Durban and Windhoek.

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 families with your weighting.

Windhoek
29match

Wins on 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

Windhoek in July

22 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
DurbanWindhoek

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre). Windhoek: 1991-2020 normals, Windhoek (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDurbanWindhoek
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageEnglish
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Namibia Dollar (NAD)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzM220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+2
Emergency number112112
Elevation22 m1,650 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsHosea Kutako International Airport (WDH)41 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanWindhoek
City population595,061486,169
People per km²2,63495
Museums within 10 km15
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

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