Durban Travel Guide: Beaches, Curry & Golf in KwaZulu-Natal

Durban is South Africa’s third-largest city and the beating heart of KwaZulu-Natal, spread along a warm curve of the Indian Ocean about 600 kilometres (370 miles) southeast of Johannesburg. It grew up around one of the finest natural harbours on the continent — the Bay of Natal — and the Port of Durban remains the busiest container terminal in Africa, the reason the city exists at all. Sugar cane built its fortunes in the nineteenth century, and the green hills of cane that still roll north toward Zululand explain the second great chapter of Durban’s story.

From 1860, sugar planters brought indentured labourers from India to work those fields, and their descendants gave Durban the largest population of Indian origin of any city outside India. The result is a place that feels like nowhere else in Africa: Zulu, Indian and colonial histories layered into one humid, subtropical, endlessly hospitable port town. You can spend a morning on a beachfront promenade that would not look out of place in Rio, buy masala by the scoop in a Victorian market hall at lunchtime, and watch the sun drop behind the Valley of a Thousand Hills in the evening. Inland rise the Drakensberg mountains; along the coast north and south lie some of the best golf courses on the continent — which is exactly why Durban and its province anchor several of Palace Tours’ Rovos Rail journeys.

What to see in Durban

• The Golden Mile — Durban’s beachfront spine, a paved promenade running for several kilometres past lifeguarded swimming beaches, piers and pools. Rebuilt ahead of the 2010 World Cup, it is now one of the great urban seafront walks in Africa, busiest at dawn with runners and surfers.
• Moses Mabhida Stadium — the city’s landmark 2010 World Cup arena, straddled by a soaring white arch. A SkyCar glides to a viewing platform at the top, and the truly committed can take the Big Swing off the arch into the bowl below.
• uShaka Marine World — a large aquarium and water park built into the hull of a mocked-up wreck at the southern end of the beachfront, with one of the biggest aquarium tanks in the southern hemisphere.
• Victoria Street Market — the sensory centre of Indian Durban, where spice merchants sell pre-blended curry masalas by weight beneath a hall of small domes, alongside fabric, brassware and incense stalls.
• Juma Masjid Mosque — the largest mosque in the southern hemisphere, its gold-domed minarets rising over the Grey Street quarter. Respectfully dressed visitors are generally welcome outside prayer times.
• Durban Botanic Gardens — established in 1849 and the oldest surviving botanical garden in Africa, a shady retreat known for its orchid house and its cycad collection.
• Umhlanga Rocks — the polished resort suburb a short drive north, with a red-and-white lighthouse planted on the sand and a boardwalk threading through coastal dune forest to a lagoon.
• Valley of a Thousand Hills — the folded green country inland toward Pietermaritzburg, where the Umgeni River carves through ridge after ridge and Zulu craft stalls line the viewpoints along the old main road.
• Durban Country Club — routinely ranked among South Africa’s very best courses, laid out in 1922 through dunes and coastal bush beside the sea, and a fixture on any serious golfing itinerary in the region.

What to eat in Durban

Durban’s signature dish is the bunny chow, and it was invented here: a quarter or half loaf of white bread, hollowed out, the crumb set on top as a lid, and the cavity filled with curry — mutton, bean or chicken. It began as a portable lunch for workers who could not be served in sit-down restaurants, and it is still eaten with your hands, standing up, at cafes across the city. Durban curry itself is its own style: fiercely hot, deep red with chilli and unapologetically aromatic, quite distinct from anything you will eat in India. Order it with a side of grated carrot sambal to take the edge off.

Beyond curry, look for roti rolled fresh and folded around fillings, crisp triangular samoosas sold from bakery counters, and bhajias fried by the bagful. The Zulu side of the table brings shisa nyama — literally “burn the meat” — the township barbecue tradition where you choose your cut at the counter and it is grilled over open coals while you wait. Seafood is excellent along the coast, prawns especially, and the sugar belt yields fresh cane juice. For a drink, the cream liqueur Amarula is made from the fruit of the marula tree, and local craft beer has taken firm hold in Umhlanga and Morningside.

Shopping & crafts

KwaZulu-Natal is the home of some of southern Africa’s finest craft traditions. Look for Zulu beadwork, whose colour combinations historically carried coded messages, and the tightly coiled Ilala palm baskets woven in the north of the province — the best are watertight. Victoria Street Market is the place for spices and curry powders to take home; the roadside stalls of the Thousand Hills route sell wire sculpture and carved wood; and Gateway Theatre of Shopping in Umhlanga is among the largest malls in Africa if you want everything under one roof.

Best time to visit

Durban is subtropical and never truly cold, which makes it a rare year-round beach city. The sweet spot is the dry winter, roughly April to October, when days are mild and sunny in the mid-20s Celsius (mid-70s Fahrenheit), humidity drops away and the Indian Ocean is still warm enough to swim. This is also the best window for golf and for game viewing in the KwaZulu-Natal reserves, when thinner bush and shrinking waterholes concentrate the wildlife. High summer, December to February, is hot, sticky and prone to dramatic afternoon thunderstorms, and it coincides with South African school holidays, when the beachfront is at its most crowded.

Good to know

• Getting there. King Shaka International Airport lies about 35 kilometres north of the city and connects to Johannesburg in roughly an hour, as well as to Cape Town and a handful of international destinations.
• Swim between the flags. Durban’s main beaches are protected by shark nets and staffed by lifeguards, but the Indian Ocean here has real surf and rip currents. Stick to the patrolled stretches of the Golden Mile.
• Currency and tipping. The currency is the South African rand. Cards are accepted almost everywhere, but carry some cash for markets and roadside stalls; around 10 percent is the usual restaurant tip, and car guards are given small change.
• Health. Durban city itself is not a malaria area, but the far north of KwaZulu-Natal toward the Mozambique border carries a seasonal risk — ask us about prophylaxis if your itinerary heads that way.
• Getting around. Distances are large and public transport is limited for visitors; a private transfer, hired car or guided touring is far the easiest way to reach Umhlanga, the Thousand Hills or the Drakensberg.