Madrid or Marseille?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on nightlife and good for families with your weighting.
Wins on beaches & swimming and year-round weather with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Marseille leads by 67 points.67
| Madrid | Marseille | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 67 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 2 |
| Beaches 10 km | 4 | 64 |
| Coast distance | 305 km | 0 km |
| Water distance | — | 0 km |
Places to eat. Madrid leads by 8 points.8
| Madrid | Marseille | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 83 | 75 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 3,508 | 1,320 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 28 | 39 |
Museums & heritage. Madrid leads by 25 points.25
| Madrid | Marseille | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 75 | 50 |
| Museums within 10 km | 97 | 33 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 59 | 23 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 61 | 70 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 4 | 1 |
Nightlife. Madrid leads by 33 points.33
| Madrid | Marseille | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 81 | 48 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 2,414 | 544 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 1,498 | 454 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 62 | 83 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 341 | 30 |
Nature & day trips. Madrid leads by 26 points.26
| Madrid | Marseille | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 63 | 37 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 19 | 15 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 13 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 56 |
| Park area within 2 km | 187 hectares | 25 hectares |
Good for families. Madrid leads by 33 points.33
| Madrid | Marseille | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 77 | 44 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 61 | 17 |
| Park area within 2 km | 187 hectares | 25 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 3 | 4 |
Sights concentration. Madrid leads by 17 points.17
| Madrid | Marseille | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 75 | 58 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 288 | 111 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Madrid leads by 9 points.9
| Madrid | Marseille | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 71 | 62 |
| Price level global | 60.8 | 73.7 |
| Daily budget | €122 | €160 |
Year-round weather. Marseille leads by 3 points.3
| Madrid | Marseille | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 72 | 75 |
| Monthly daytime high | 10 °C to 32.7 °C | 11.8 °C to 30.7 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 9 mm to 64 mm | 11 mm to 82 mm |
| Dry months | 7 | 6 |
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Madrid: 1991-2020 normals, Madrid (1.7 km from centre). Marseille: 1991-2020 normals, Marseille / Marignane (20.6 km from centre).
Getting there
| Flying from | Madrid | Marseille |
|---|---|---|
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 55 m €95-123 MAD · 14 km | 1 h 25 m €110-119 MRS · 21 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 2 h 10 m €52-105 MAD · 14 km | 1 h 50 m €65-134 1 stop MRS · 21 km |
| LisbonLIS | 1 h 15 m €40-87 MAD · 14 km | 2 h 10 m €136-184 1 stop MRS · 21 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 2 h 15 m €83-91 MAD · 14 km | 1 h 25 m no fares MRS · 21 km |
| BrusselsBRU, CRL | 2 h 15 m €99-166 MAD · 14 km | 1 h 40 m €86-123 1 stop MRS · 21 km |
| PalmaPMI | 1 h 20 m €56-238 MAD · 14 km | 1 h 15 m no fares MRS · 21 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 1 h 15 m €116-130 1 stop MAD · 14 km | 1 h 5 m no fares MRS · 21 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 2 h 25 m €175-213 MAD · 14 km | 1 h 50 m no fares MRS · 21 km |
| MontrealYUL, YHU, YMX | 7 h 10 m no fares MAD · 14 km | 7 h 45 m no fares MRS · 21 km |
| SeoulICN, GMP | 12 h 25 m no fares MAD · 14 km | 11 h 35 m no fares MRS · 21 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Madrid | Marseille |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Spanish | French |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CF230 V, 50 Hz | CE230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 112 |
| Elevation | 663 m | 0 m |
| Main airport | Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre236 non-stop destinations | Marseille Provence Airport (MRS)21 km from centre125 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 12 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Madrid | Marseille |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 3,506,730 | 886,040 |
| People per km² | 5,801 | 3,683 |
| Museums within 10 km | 88 | 27 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 4 | 1 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 106 | 93 |
| 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 Madrid or Marseille somewhere new.