VacationSelector
The cathedral from the gardens, Malaga
MalagaThe cathedral from the gardens
Castel Sant'Elmo and the Certosa di San Martino, Naples
NaplesCastel Sant'Elmo and the Certosa di San Martino

Photos: Malaga by Holger Uwe Schmitt, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Naples by pietro scerrato, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Malaga or Naples?

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 Malaga for

  • beaches
  • families
  • getting around

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

Choose Naples for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Naples’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. Malaga 77, Naples 50: Malaga leads by 27 points.
Food & drink. Malaga 68, Naples 83: Naples leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Malaga 65, Naples 87: Naples leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Malaga 62, Naples 60: Malaga leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Malaga 73, Naples 77: Naples leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Malaga 87, Naples 96: Naples leads by 9 points.
Good for families. Malaga 70, Naples 45: Malaga leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Malaga 70, Naples 54: Malaga leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Malaga 55, Naples 60: Naples leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Malaga 55, Naples 63: Naples leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Malaga 45, Naples 66: Naples leads by 21 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Malaga 42, Naples 44: Naples leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Malaga and Naples.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Malaga
64match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Naples
65match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Malaga in July

31 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
22 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Naples in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
MalagaNaples

Where the figures come from

Naples 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.

Naples's sunshine is measured 28 km from the centre, at Grazzanise.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Malaga: 1991-2020 normals, Malaga / Aeropuerto (8.2 km from centre). Naples: 2005-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Napoli / Capodichino (4.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMalagaNaples
Official languageSpanishItalian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation18 m17 m
Main airportMálaga-Costa del Sol Airport (AGP)8 km from centre166 non-stop destinationsNaples International Airport (NAP)7 km from centre131 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMalagaNaples
City population599,063913,462
People per km²1,5177,676
Museums within 10 km3265
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km15
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Malaga or Naples 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. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.