VacationSelector
Big Ben and Westminster Bridge, London
LondonBig Ben and Westminster Bridge
La Major cathedral from the harbour, Marseille
MarseilleLa Major cathedral from the harbour

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

London 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 London for

  • shopping
  • live music and the arts
  • families

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

Choose Marseille for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

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. London 25, Marseille 72: Marseille leads by 47 points.
Food & drink. London 84, Marseille 67: London leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. London 94, Marseille 63: London leads by 31 points.
Nightlife. London 88, Marseille 57: London leads by 31 points.
Nature & outdoors. London 57, Marseille 83: Marseille leads by 26 points.
Day trips. London 90, Marseille 86: London leads by 4 points.
Good for families. London 82, Marseille 50: London leads by 32 points.
Getting around. London 85, Marseille 57: London leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. London 95, Marseille 47: London leads by 48 points.
Affordability. London 15, Marseille 45: Marseille leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. London 98, Marseille 56: London leads by 42 points.
Wellness & relaxation. London 40, Marseille 37: London leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: London and Marseille.

Your match

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

London
Best match
71match

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

Marseille
60match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

London in July

23 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 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

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
LondonMarseille

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. London: 1992-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, London Weather Centre (1.3 km from centre). Marseille: 1991-2020 normals, Marseille / Marignane (20.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLondonMarseille
Official languageEnglishFrench
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999112
Elevation4 m0 m
Main airportLondon Heathrow Airport (LHR)23 km from centre224 non-stop destinationsMarseille Provence Airport (MRS)21 km from centre126 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureLondonMarseille
City population8,799,728886,040
People per km²5,5983,683
Museums within 10 km21627
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km41
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 London 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.