Things to do in Durban

Landmark · Beachfront

An eight-kilometre paved promenade along the warm Indian Ocean, now extended north past Blue Lagoon — runners, surfers, fishermen and rickshaws.

Local tip: Best at sunrise, when the whole city seems to be on it. Check the beach water quality portal before swimming, and swim between the flags where the shark nets are.

Food · CBD

The historic Indian trading quarter — spice merchants, fabric shops, and the Juma Musjid, one of the largest mosques in the southern hemisphere.

Local tip: Buy your masala here by the bag, not at a supermarket. Go on a weekday morning and eat a bunny chow somewhere with a queue.

Landmark · Stamford Hill

The 2010 World Cup stadium under a 106-metre arch, with a funicular to the top and a bungee swing off the middle of it.

Local tip: The SkyCar at sunset gives the best single view of the city, coast and Berea ridge. The stadium precinct is also where much of Durban runs on weekends.

Culture · The Point

An aquarium built inside a mocked-up shipwreck plus a large water park, at the southern end of the beachfront.

Local tip: The aquarium is genuinely good and less crowded on weekday mornings; the adjoining Point Waterfront redevelopment has changed the area considerably.

Nature · Berea

Africa's oldest surviving botanic garden, founded in 1849 — cycads, orchids, enormous fig trees and a lake, ten minutes from the CBD.

Local tip: Free entry, almost never busy, and the best place in the city to sit out a humid afternoon. The cycad collection is internationally significant and most residents have never seen it.

Neighborhood · North coast (~20 min)

The red-and-white lighthouse, a wooden promenade above the beach, and the office towers of Umhlanga Ridge behind it — where Durban's business life actually happens now.

Local tip: Walk the promenade north to the Umhlanga Lagoon nature reserve at low tide. Gateway is one of the largest malls in Africa and is the region's default meeting point.