VacationSelector
The coastline of the Hotel Zone, Cancun
CancunThe coastline of the Hotel Zone
La Major cathedral from the harbour, Marseille
MarseilleLa Major cathedral from the harbour

Photos: Cancun by Tellez Erik, Pexels License; Marseille by Charlotte Noblet, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Cancun or Marseille?

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 Cancun for

  • families
  • beaches
  • wellness

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

Choose Marseille for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Marseille’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. Cancun 98, Marseille 72: Cancun leads by 26 points.
Food & drink. Cancun 44, Marseille 67: Marseille leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Cancun 15, Marseille 63: Marseille leads by 48 points.
Nightlife. Cancun 70, Marseille 57: Cancun leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cancun 66, Marseille 83: Marseille leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Cancun 65, Marseille 86: Marseille leads by 21 points.
Good for families. Cancun 78, Marseille 50: Cancun leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Cancun 25, Marseille 57: Marseille leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. Cancun 40, Marseille 47: Marseille leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Cancun 46, Marseille 45: Cancun leads by 1 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cancun 17, Marseille 56: Marseille leads by 39 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cancun 55, Marseille 37: Cancun leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cancun and Marseille.

Your match

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

Cancun
52match

Wins on families and beaches with your weighting.

Marseille
Best match
60match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cancun in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
89 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Marseille in July

31 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
11 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CancunMarseille

Where the figures come from

Cancun has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cancun: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Marseille: 1991-2020 normals, Marseille / Marignane (20.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCancunMarseille
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaFrench
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation5 m0 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsMarseille Provence Airport (MRS)21 km from centre126 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCancunMarseille
City population888,797886,040
People per km²-3,683
Museums within 10 km127
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months2 months

Where else could you go?

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

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.