VacationSelector
The old town hall, Boca Raton
Boca RatonThe old town hall
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: Boca Raton by Spudgun67, CC0; Marbella by Décio Franchini, Pexels License.

Boca Raton 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 Boca Raton for

  • beaches
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Marbella for

  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

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. Boca Raton 82, Marbella 76: Boca Raton leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Boca Raton 44, Marbella 60: Marbella leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Boca Raton 28, Marbella 32: Marbella leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Boca Raton 32, Marbella 64: Marbella leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Boca Raton 50, Marbella 70: Marbella leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Boca Raton 60, Marbella 77: Marbella leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Boca Raton 62, Marbella 70: Marbella leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Boca Raton 18, Marbella 38: Marbella leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Boca Raton 54, Marbella 58: Marbella leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Boca Raton 22, Marbella 30: Marbella leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Boca Raton 33, Marbella 30: Boca Raton leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Boca Raton 42, Marbella 52: Marbella leads by 10 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Boca Raton and Marbella.

Your match

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

Boca Raton
44match

Wins on beaches and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Marbella
Best match
55match

Wins on nightlife and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Boca Raton in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
191 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 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

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Boca RatonMarbella

Where the figures come from

Boca Raton 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.

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. Boca Raton: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Pompano Beach / Kendall Green (13.6 km from centre). Marbella: 1991-2020 normals, Malaga / Aeropuerto (39.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBoca RatonMarbella
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation4 m22 m
Main airportFort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport (FLL)33 km from centre138 non-stop destinationsMálaga-Costa del Sol Airport (AGP)39 km from centre166 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureBoca RatonMarbella
City population97,422159,786
People per km²1,2031,398
Museums within 10 km56
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Boca Raton 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). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

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.