VacationSelector
The skyline and yachts on the canals, Fort Lauderdale
Fort LauderdaleThe skyline and yachts on the canals
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: Fort Lauderdale by KeanoManu, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Marbella by Décio Franchini, Pexels License.

Fort Lauderdale 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 Fort Lauderdale for

  • beaches
  • live music and the arts
  • prices

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

Choose Marbella for

  • day trips
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

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. Fort Lauderdale 88, Marbella 76: Fort Lauderdale leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Fort Lauderdale 47, Marbella 60: Marbella leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Fort Lauderdale 28, Marbella 32: Marbella leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Fort Lauderdale 52, Marbella 64: Marbella leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Fort Lauderdale 62, Marbella 70: Marbella leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Fort Lauderdale 58, Marbella 77: Marbella leads by 19 points.
Good for families. Fort Lauderdale 66, Marbella 70: Marbella leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Fort Lauderdale 32, Marbella 38: Marbella leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Fort Lauderdale 52, Marbella 58: Marbella leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Fort Lauderdale 32, Marbella 30: Fort Lauderdale leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Fort Lauderdale 42, Marbella 30: Fort Lauderdale leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Fort Lauderdale 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: Fort Lauderdale and Marbella.

Your match

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

Fort Lauderdale
50match

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

Marbella
Best match
55match

Wins on day trips and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Fort Lauderdale in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
166 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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Fort LauderdaleMarbella

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. Fort Lauderdale: 1991-2020 normals, Fort Lauderdale (7.1 km from centre). Marbella: 1991-2020 normals, Malaga / Aeropuerto (39.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFort LauderdaleMarbella
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
Elevation11 m22 m
Main airportFort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport (FLL)7 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

MeasureFort LauderdaleMarbella
City population182,760159,786
People per km²1,8291,398
Museums within 10 km66
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 Fort Lauderdale 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.