VacationSelector
Durban
The Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky, Xi'an
Xi'anThe Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky

Photos: Xi'an by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Durban or Xi'an?

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
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Xi'an for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Xi'an’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, Xi'an 4: Durban leads by 76 points.
Food & drink. Durban 60, Xi'an 70: Xi'an leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Durban 38, Xi'an 81: Xi'an leads by 43 points.
Nightlife. Durban 40, Xi'an 42: Xi'an leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban 68, Xi'an 62: Durban leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Durban 38, Xi'an 80: Xi'an leads by 42 points.
Good for families. Durban 60, Xi'an 48: Durban leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Durban 20, Xi'an 66: Xi'an leads by 46 points.
Shopping & style. Durban 42, Xi'an 50: Xi'an leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Durban 72, Xi'an 80: Xi'an leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Durban and Xi'an are level on 40.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban 30, Xi'an 40: Xi'an leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Durban and Xi'an.

Your match

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

Durban
49match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Xi'an
Best match
55match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights 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

Xi'an in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
96 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
DurbanXi'an

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre). Xi'an: 1991-2020 normals, Xi'An (4.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDurbanXi'an
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguagePutonghua
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+8
Emergency number112Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation22 m405 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsXi'an Xianyang International Airport (XIY)26 km from centre178 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanXi'an
City population595,06112,952,907
People per km²2,6341,283
Museums within 10 km19
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
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 Xi'an 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.