VacationSelector
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
The harbour seen from above, Marmaris
MarmarisThe harbour seen from above

Photos: Marbella by Décio Franchini, Pexels License; Marmaris by Mstyslav Chernov, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Marbella or Marmaris?

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 Marbella for

  • food and drink
  • shopping
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Marmaris for

  • prices
  • getting around
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Marmaris’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. Marbella 76, Marmaris 80: Marmaris leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Marbella 60, Marmaris 40: Marbella leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Marbella 32, Marmaris 18: Marbella leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Marbella 64, Marmaris 60: Marbella leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Marbella 70, Marmaris 72: Marmaris leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Marbella 77, Marmaris 65: Marbella leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Marbella 70, Marmaris 62: Marbella leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Marbella 38, Marmaris 55: Marmaris leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Marbella 58, Marmaris 38: Marbella leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Marbella 30, Marmaris 62: Marmaris leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Marbella 30, Marmaris 12: Marbella leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Marbella 52, Marmaris 50: Marbella leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Marbella and Marmaris.

Your match

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

Marbella
Best match
55match

Wins on food and drink and shopping with your weighting.

Marmaris
51match

Wins on prices and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Marmaris in July

32 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
8 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
MarbellaMarmaris

Where the figures come from

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.

Marmaris's temperatures are measured 49 km from the centre, at Dalaman.

Marmaris 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. Marbella: 1991-2020 normals, Malaga / Aeropuerto (39.7 km from centre). Marmaris: 2000-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Dalaman (48.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMarbellaMarmaris
Official languageSpanishTurkish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Turkish Lira (TRY)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+3
Emergency number112112
Elevation22 m7 m
Main airportMálaga-Costa del Sol Airport (AGP)39 km from centre166 non-stop destinationsDalaman International Airport (DLM)49 km from centre61 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureMarbellaMarmaris
City population159,78697,818
People per km²1,398111
Museums within 10 km61
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Marbella or Marmaris 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.