La Lucia: Find hotels with a regional culture and leisure perspective

The municipal museums and uShaka attractions represent different areas of culture and leisure.

Culture and museums in the wider destination of Durban Metro

The eThekwini municipal museums cover a range of areas: the Durban Local History Museums focus on cultural and historical heritage, the Durban Art Gallery on visual art, and the Durban Natural Science Museum on natural science aspects of heritage. This classification is useful when choosing a museum to visit because it distinguishes history and cultural heritage, visual art, and natural science as separate subject areas.

There are 19 Local History Museums sites in eThekwini, all managed by the Municipality. The municipal museum collection may change, so check the latest information before planning a specific visit. The figure refers to sites within the Local History offering, not 19 different subject areas.

Aquarium, animal presentations and water park

uShaka Sea World is an aquarium and offers dolphin shows, seal viewing and penguin presentations. The formats therefore include shows as well as viewing and presentations. If a particular format is especially important to you, check the current program before your visit: the show schedule may change. When planning, it is worth distinguishing between stable classifications and changing details: the museum focus areas, as well as the classification of Sea World as an aquarium and Wet n Wild as a water park, describe the attractions on an ongoing basis. By contrast, the number of Local History sites and the Sea World show schedule may change. The first type of information helps you sort out your cultural interests and leisure preferences in general; the second concerns details that may matter for a specific visit. This lets you separate choosing by theme from checking which details are current at the time of your visit.

uShaka Wet n Wild is a water park, making it a different type of attraction from the Sea World aquarium. You can consider these attractions separately when choosing by theme: Sea World is classified as an aquarium and features the animal presentations mentioned above, while Wet n Wild is classified as a water park. This can help you first decide whether you are more interested in the aquarium and animal presentations or in a water park.

The Municipality’s geographic setting

The eThekwini Municipality extends from cosmopolitan coastal areas in the north to rugged valleys in the west. This range provides a broad geographic setting for the wider destination of Durban Metro. It offers another perspective on the destination alongside the individual museum focus areas and uShaka attractions: the Municipality’s landscape on one hand, and its cultural and leisure offerings on the other.

You can first decide what you would like to focus on, then search for a specific place to stay as a separate step.

For the wider travel overview: Umhlanga.