VacationSelector
A classic car in front of the Capitolio, Havana
HavanaA classic car in front of the Capitolio
La Major cathedral from the harbour, Marseille
MarseilleLa Major cathedral from the harbour

Photos: Havana by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Marseille by Charlotte Noblet, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Havana 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 Havana for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • prices

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

Choose Marseille for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • 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. Havana 64, Marseille 72: Marseille leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Havana 40, Marseille 67: Marseille leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Havana 77, Marseille 63: Havana leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Havana 60, Marseille 57: Havana leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Havana 34, Marseille 83: Marseille leads by 49 points.
Day trips. Havana 38, Marseille 86: Marseille leads by 48 points.
Good for families. Havana 34, Marseille 50: Marseille leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Havana 38, Marseille 57: Marseille leads by 19 points.
Shopping & style. Havana 30, Marseille 47: Marseille leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Havana 58, Marseille 45: Havana leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Havana 74, Marseille 56: Havana leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Havana 22, Marseille 37: Marseille leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Havana and Marseille.

Your match

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

Havana
47match

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

Marseille
Best match
60match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Havana in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
118 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

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
HavanaMarseille

Where the figures come from

Havana 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. Havana: 1991-2020 normals, Casa Blanca, La Habana (3.5 km from centre). Marseille: 1991-2020 normals, Marseille / Marignane (20.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHavanaMarseille
Official languageSpanishFrench
CurrencyCuban Peso (CUP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 106, ambulance 104, fire 105112
Elevation59 m0 m
Main airportJosé Martí International Airport (HAV)17 km from centre21 non-stop destinationsMarseille Provence Airport (MRS)21 km from centre126 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureHavanaMarseille
City population2,492,618886,040
People per km²3,4233,683
Museums within 10 km1227
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Havana 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). 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). 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. Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.