VacationSelector
Bougainvillea and the dome of Agia Napa Cathedral, Limassol
LimassolBougainvillea and the dome of Agia Napa Cathedral
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: Limassol by Julian Lupyan, CC0; Marbella by Décio Franchini, Pexels License.

Limassol 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 Limassol for

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

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

Choose Marbella for

  • shopping
  • nightlife
  • wellness

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. Limassol 77, Marbella 76: Limassol leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Limassol 58, Marbella 60: Marbella leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Limassol 38, Marbella 32: Limassol leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Limassol 50, Marbella 64: Marbella leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Limassol 65, Marbella 70: Marbella leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Limassol 76, Marbella 77: Marbella leads by 1 points.
Good for families. Limassol 63, Marbella 70: Marbella leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Limassol and Marbella are level on 38.
Shopping & style. Limassol 42, Marbella 58: Marbella leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Limassol 44, Marbella 30: Limassol leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Limassol 32, Marbella 30: Limassol leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Limassol 42, Marbella 52: Marbella leads by 10 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Limassol
52match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Marbella
Best match
55match

Wins on shopping and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Limassol in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
13 hsunshine a day
26 °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

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
LimassolMarbella

Where the figures come from

Limassol 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.

Limassol's sunshine is measured 59 km from the centre, at Larnaca Airport.

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. Limassol: 1998-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Akrotiri (11.6 km from centre). Marbella: 1991-2020 normals, Malaga / Aeropuerto (39.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLimassolMarbella
Official languageTurkish, Greek, Modern GreekSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation10 m22 m
Main airportLarnaca International Airport (LCA)58 km from centre112 non-stop destinationsMálaga-Costa del Sol Airport (AGP)39 km from centre166 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureLimassolMarbella
City population107,970159,786
People per km²2,4051,398
Museums within 10 km26
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Limassol or Marbella somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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). 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. 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.