VacationSelector
The cathedral from the gardens, Malaga
MalagaThe cathedral from the gardens
Palms at CityPlace on Rosemary Avenue, West Palm Beach
West Palm BeachPalms at CityPlace on Rosemary Avenue

Photos: Malaga by Holger Uwe Schmitt, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; West Palm Beach by Michael Rivera, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Malaga or West Palm Beach?

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

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • prices

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

Choose West Palm Beach for

  • shopping
  • beaches
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on West Palm Beach’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, West Palm Beach 80: West Palm Beach leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. Malaga 68, West Palm Beach 52: Malaga leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Malaga 65, West Palm Beach 42: Malaga leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Malaga 62, West Palm Beach 36: Malaga leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Malaga 73, West Palm Beach 58: Malaga leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Malaga 87, West Palm Beach 55: Malaga leads by 32 points.
Good for families. Malaga 70, West Palm Beach 66: Malaga leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Malaga 70, West Palm Beach 38: Malaga leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. Malaga 55, West Palm Beach 64: West Palm Beach leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Malaga 55, West Palm Beach 23: Malaga leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Malaga 45, West Palm Beach 47: West Palm Beach leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Malaga 42, West Palm Beach 44: West Palm Beach leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Malaga and West Palm Beach.

Your match

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

Malaga
Best match
64match

Wins on day trips and getting around with your weighting.

West Palm Beach
50match

Wins on shopping and beaches 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

West Palm Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
145 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
MalagaWest Palm Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Malaga: 1991-2020 normals, Malaga / Aeropuerto (8.2 km from centre). West Palm Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Palm Beach International (5.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMalagaWest Palm Beach
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation18 m6 m
Main airportMálaga-Costa del Sol Airport (AGP)8 km from centre166 non-stop destinationsPresident Donald J. Trump International Airport (DJT)6 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMalagaWest Palm Beach
City population599,063117,415
People per km²1,517786
Museums within 10 km324
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Malaga or West Palm Beach 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.