About Durban

The city of Durban, in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, situated on the subtropical East Coast is South Africa's third largest city and is a prime tourist destination in Southern Africa. The city surrounds Durban Bay, the busiest port in Africa and the world's ninth largest. Superb air and land transport infrastructure exists, with many of the major international airlines flying directly to South Africa. Durban is nestled on the coast of the warm Indian Ocean with golden beaches, parks, museums, theatres and world class shopping malls.

Durban's subtropical weather is sultry in summer and mild in winter. Durban is noted for it's rich cultural diversity, and delegates will be greeted by a kaleidoscope of amongst others, Indian, Colonial and African traditions that have prospered in the city and given rise to a wide variety of cuisine, restaurants, arts and crafts, and ethnic dance forms.  Within a two-hour drive from Durban, delegates can be on safari at a game reserve, visiting traditional Zulu villages, hiking or trout fishing in the majestic Drakensberg Mountains. KwaZulu-Natal boasts two world heritage sites - one in the Drakensberg mountains, which contains one of the highest waterfalls in the world, and the other, the St Lucia Wetlands Park, which is adjacent to Sodwana Bay, the site of the recent coelacanth colony discovery. Durban is an ideal base from which to explore Southern Africa.

WEATHER

Durban is famous for its mild sub-tropical climate with warm wet summers and mild moist to dry winters. Due to large altitude variations, some western suburbs get very cold in the winter. Durban has an annual rainfall of 1,009 millimetres (39.7 in), with daytime maxima peaking from January to March at 28 °C (82 °F) and the minimum is 21 °C (70 °F), dropping to daytime highs from June to August of 23 °C (73 °F) and the minimum is 11 °C (52 °F).
The weather in July is normally mild and pleasant, with daily temperatures ranging between 20ºC during the day and 10ºC - 15ºC (68F and 50-60F) overnight. It is recommended that you wear some warm clothes for the evenings and bring a jacket or raincoat.

TOURIST ATTRACTIONS

• The Golden Mile
• uShaka Marine World, one of the largest Aquariums in the world.
• Gateway Theatre of Shopping
• Suncoast Casino and Entertainment World

SECURITY

For those participants who have not previously visited South Africa, or Durban, and are concerned about personal safety, we wish to assure all visitors that Durban is like any other major city with good and bad areas. Common sense will ensure a trouble free and enjoyable conference and vacation. The area around the Southern Sun Elangeni is safe and well monitored at all times but we advise that you do not walk alone after dark in unpopulated streets. Ostentatious displays of wealth should be avoided at all times.