South Africa: Kwazulunatal: Durban

rich campoamor
Cincinnati

Not worth visiting!

Scary but beautiful place

We spent a few days here at the end of our trip to South Africa. The beaches on the Indian Ocean are lovely, but there is a huge amount of violent crime everywhere in the city. There were something like 3 murders close to our hotel and we were only there for three nights! Everyplace we went they would warn us not to go out after dark (with reason it would appear).

If I go back, I’ll spent time on the beaches near Cape Town and avoid the side trip to Durban.

Comments:

cleaton
Durban

Which hotel were you staying in?

rich campoamor
Cincinnati

We were staying at the Blue Waters Hotel which is right on the waterfront (the photo was taken from our balcony). Many of the larger chain hotels are just a few blocks up the beach.

cleaton
Durban

The Blue Waters is pretty much the far North of the beachfront hotels, and all the buildings on the right, for quite a long way down are blocks of flats/apartments, so in terms of hotels, its fairly isolated from the rest – the closest is the Suncoast cAsino, which is itself, fairly isolated from the rest of the surrounding hotels.

Its quite possible that you are not aware, that behind the beachfront hotels, to the South is Point Road – notorious for prostitution and drugs, and all the various crimes that go hand in hand. My bet is that the murders you mention took place in that area, and while geographically close to the hotels, a million miles away in terms of everything else.

Hotels routinely warn guests not to wander at night, because in general holidaymakers have no idea which areas are safe to walk in, and which areas aren’t (perfectly understandable), and can easily stray into no-go places. From your hotel you would have been perfectly safe walking to Joe Kool’s (along the road in front of the hotel, not the beach road), provided you didn’t decide to take a stroll the the Sunken Gardens (not a place to be after dark – muggers hang out there in the evening hours) The stretch of beach promenade in front of Joe Kool’s is safe, and standing on the end of the piers watching the waves at night is cool – and if you’re here in July, watching the night surfing is great from the ends of the piers too :)

Personally, instead of staying in any of the Durban beachfront hotels, I think you’re better off staying in Umhlanga Rocks, 15 minutes north of Durban. You can easily reach any of the Durban attractions, and its far less citified.

There is a huge amount of violent crime everywhere in South Africa, and if you look at crime statistics for the country, you’ll find that Durban has one of the lowest crime rates in the country – lower than both Cape Town and Jo’burg. Anywhere in SA, you have to live at a higher level of awareness than elsewhere in the world, and most importantly, know where you are going, and know where you definitely shouldn’t go!

rich campoamor
Cincinnati

I would certainly have loved to have your knowledge and advice when I was planning my trip to Durban.

I also agree that there are places in Cape Town and most any other large city in the world where you need to be very aware of what is going on around you at all times.

A big part of travel for me is experiencing these differences.

Thanks for you comments.

cleaton
Durban

Well, next time

Get in touch before you get to Durban :) Sounds like you weren’t here long enough either! Durbs make a great base for exploring the rest of KZN, the game reserves and St Lucia Estuary (WHS) etc in the North, the Drakensberg Mountains (WHS) the dams, the battlefields. You’ll have to pop back, spend more time, and spend it in the right places :)


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