VacationSelector
Cloud Gate in Millennium Park, Chicago
ChicagoCloud Gate in Millennium Park
La Major cathedral from the harbour, Marseille
MarseilleLa Major cathedral from the harbour

Photos: Chicago by Jesus Toledo, Pexels License; Marseille by Charlotte Noblet, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Chicago 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 Chicago for

  • families
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

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

Choose Marseille for

  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

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. Chicago 50, Marseille 72: Marseille leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Chicago 80, Marseille 67: Chicago leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Chicago 78, Marseille 63: Chicago leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Chicago 77, Marseille 57: Chicago leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chicago 48, Marseille 83: Marseille leads by 35 points.
Day trips. Chicago 42, Marseille 86: Marseille leads by 44 points.
Good for families. Chicago 78, Marseille 50: Chicago leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Chicago 72, Marseille 57: Chicago leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Chicago 70, Marseille 47: Chicago leads by 23 points.
Affordability. Chicago 33, Marseille 45: Marseille leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chicago 82, Marseille 56: Chicago leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chicago 33, Marseille 37: Marseille leads by 4 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chicago and Marseille.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Chicago
62match

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

Marseille
60match

Wins on day trips 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.

Chicago in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
102 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 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

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
ChicagoMarseille

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chicago: 1991-2020 normals, Chicago Midway Airport (14.5 km from centre). Marseille: 1991-2020 normals, Marseille / Marignane (20.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChicagoMarseille
Official language-French
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation179 m0 m
Main airportChicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)25 km from centre274 non-stop destinationsMarseille Provence Airport (MRS)21 km from centre126 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureChicagoMarseille
City population2,746,388886,040
People per km²4,5293,683
Museums within 10 km4427
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 month2 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Chicago or Marseille 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.