VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
La Major cathedral from the harbour, Marseille
MarseilleLa Major cathedral from the harbour

Photos: Johannesburg by K, Pexels License; Marseille by Charlotte Noblet, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Johannesburg 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 Johannesburg for

  • prices
  • shopping
  • nightlife

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

Choose Marseille for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • day trips

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. Johannesburg 5, Marseille 72: Marseille leads by 67 points.
Food & drink. Johannesburg 58, Marseille 67: Marseille leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, Marseille 63: Marseille leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, Marseille 57: Johannesburg leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg 55, Marseille 83: Marseille leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Johannesburg 52, Marseille 86: Marseille leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Johannesburg 42, Marseille 50: Marseille leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, Marseille 57: Marseille leads by 39 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, Marseille 47: Johannesburg leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, Marseille 45: Johannesburg leads by 27 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg 55, Marseille 56: Marseille leads by 1 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 28, Marseille 37: Marseille leads by 9 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Johannesburg
47match

Wins on prices and shopping with your weighting.

Marseille
Best match
60match

Wins on beaches and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Johannesburg in July

19 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
11 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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
JohannesburgMarseille

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Johannesburg: 2005-2019 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Johannesburg B / Roosevelt Park (7.3 km from centre). Marseille: 1991-2020 normals, Marseille / Marignane (20.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgMarseille
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageFrench
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation1,753 m0 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinationsMarseille Provence Airport (MRS)21 km from centre126 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureJohannesburgMarseille
City population4,803,262886,040
People per km²2,9223,683
Museums within 10 km1427
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C-2 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Johannesburg 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.