VacationSelector
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens
La Major cathedral from the harbour, Marseille
MarseilleLa Major cathedral from the harbour

Photos: Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Marseille by Charlotte Noblet, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Edinburgh 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 Edinburgh for

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

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

Choose Marseille for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • food and drink

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. Edinburgh 22, Marseille 72: Marseille leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Edinburgh 53, Marseille 67: Marseille leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Edinburgh 75, Marseille 63: Edinburgh leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Edinburgh 50, Marseille 57: Marseille leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Edinburgh 75, Marseille 83: Marseille leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Edinburgh 75, Marseille 86: Marseille leads by 11 points.
Good for families. Edinburgh 62, Marseille 50: Edinburgh leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Edinburgh 74, Marseille 57: Edinburgh leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Edinburgh 50, Marseille 47: Edinburgh leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Edinburgh 30, Marseille 45: Marseille leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Edinburgh 72, Marseille 56: Edinburgh leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Edinburgh 34, Marseille 37: Marseille leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Edinburgh and Marseille.

Your match

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

Edinburgh
56match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Marseille
Best match
60match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Edinburgh in July

19 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
66 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
14 °Csea
17 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

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
EdinburghMarseille

Where the figures come from

Edinburgh 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.

Edinburgh's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at Leuchars.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Edinburgh: 1991-2020 normals, Edinburgh Airport (10 km from centre). Marseille: 1991-2020 normals, Marseille / Marignane (20.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEdinburghMarseille
Official languageEnglishFrench
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999112
Elevation47 m0 m
Main airportEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinationsMarseille Provence Airport (MRS)21 km from centre126 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureEdinburghMarseille
City population488,050886,040
People per km²1,8843,683
Museums within 10 km3227
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone2 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Edinburgh 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.