VacationSelector
The Château Grimaldi, home of the Musée Picasso, on the sea walls, Antibes
AntibesThe Château Grimaldi, home of the Musée Picasso, on the sea walls
The Plaza de los Naranjos and its fountain in the old town, Marbella
MarbellaThe Plaza de los Naranjos and its fountain in the old town

Photos: Antibes by Johan Allard, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Marbella by Décio Franchini, Pexels License.

Antibes or Marbella?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Antibes for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Antibes’s own page.

Choose Marbella for

  • nightlife
  • shopping
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Marbella’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Antibes 80, Marbella 76: Antibes leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Antibes 50, Marbella 60: Marbella leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Antibes 42, Marbella 32: Antibes leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Antibes 40, Marbella 64: Marbella leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Antibes and Marbella are level on 70.
Day trips. Antibes 88, Marbella 77: Antibes leads by 11 points.
Good for families. Antibes 55, Marbella 70: Marbella leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Antibes 62, Marbella 38: Antibes leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Antibes 35, Marbella 58: Marbella leads by 23 points.
Affordability. Antibes and Marbella are level on 30.
Live music & performing arts. Antibes 35, Marbella 30: Antibes leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Antibes 40, Marbella 52: Marbella leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Antibes and Marbella.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Antibes
52match

Wins on getting around and day trips with your weighting.

Marbella
Best match
55match

Wins on nightlife and shopping with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Antibes in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Marbella in July

31 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
AntibesMarbella

Where the figures come from

Marbella's temperatures are measured 40 km from the centre, at Malaga / Aeropuerto.

Marbella has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Antibes: 1991-2020 normals, Nice (9.9 km from centre). Marbella: 1991-2020 normals, Malaga / Aeropuerto (39.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAntibesMarbella
Official languageFrenchSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation0 m22 m
Main airportNice-Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE)11 km from centre130 non-stop destinationsMálaga-Costa del Sol Airport (AGP)39 km from centre166 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureAntibesMarbella
City population77,637159,786
People per km²2,9301,398
Museums within 10 km146
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Antibes or Marbella somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.