VacationSelector
Swayambhunath with its prayer flags, Kathmandu
KathmanduSwayambhunath with its prayer flags
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: Kathmandu by Nabin K. Sapkota, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Marbella by Décio Franchini, Pexels License.

Kathmandu 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 Kathmandu for

  • prices
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Marbella for

  • beaches
  • families
  • 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. Kathmandu 4, Marbella 76: Marbella leads by 72 points.
Food & drink. Kathmandu 55, Marbella 60: Marbella leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Kathmandu 82, Marbella 32: Kathmandu leads by 50 points.
Nightlife. Kathmandu 36, Marbella 64: Marbella leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kathmandu and Marbella are level on 70.
Day trips. Kathmandu 56, Marbella 77: Marbella leads by 21 points.
Good for families. Kathmandu 20, Marbella 70: Marbella leads by 50 points.
Getting around. Kathmandu 25, Marbella 38: Marbella leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Kathmandu 55, Marbella 58: Marbella leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Kathmandu 97, Marbella 30: Kathmandu leads by 67 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kathmandu 28, Marbella 30: Marbella leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kathmandu 45, Marbella 52: Marbella leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kathmandu and Marbella.

Your match

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

Kathmandu
48match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Marbella
Best match
55match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Kathmandu in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
384 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
KathmanduMarbella

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. Kathmandu: 1991-2020 normals, Kathmandu Airport (4.7 km from centre). Marbella: 1991-2020 normals, Malaga / Aeropuerto (39.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKathmanduMarbella
Official languageNepaliSpanish
CurrencyNepalese Rupee (NPR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCM230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+5:45UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 100, ambulance 102, fire 101112
Elevation1,300 m22 m
Main airportTribhuvan International Airport (KTM)4 km from centre38 non-stop destinationsMálaga-Costa del Sol Airport (AGP)39 km from centre166 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-12 days

By the numbers

MeasureKathmanduMarbella
City population845,767159,786
People per km²17,1211,398
Museums within 10 km96
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Kathmandu 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.