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 SkyWheel by the beach, Myrtle Beach
Myrtle BeachThe SkyWheel by the beach

Photos: Marbella by Décio Franchini, Pexels License; Myrtle Beach by The ed17, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Marbella or Myrtle 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 Marbella for

  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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

Choose Myrtle Beach for

  • prices
  • families
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Myrtle 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. Marbella 76, Myrtle Beach 84: Myrtle Beach leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Marbella 60, Myrtle Beach 38: Marbella leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Marbella 32, Myrtle Beach 20: Marbella leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Marbella 64, Myrtle Beach 42: Marbella leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Marbella 70, Myrtle Beach 46: Marbella leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Marbella 77, Myrtle Beach 50: Marbella leads by 27 points.
Good for families. Marbella 70, Myrtle Beach 80: Myrtle Beach leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Marbella 38, Myrtle Beach 18: Marbella leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Marbella 58, Myrtle Beach 38: Marbella leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Marbella 30, Myrtle Beach 52: Myrtle Beach leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Marbella and Myrtle Beach are level on 30.
Wellness & relaxation. Marbella 52, Myrtle Beach 28: Marbella leads by 24 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Marbella and Myrtle Beach.

Your match

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

Marbella
Best match
55match

Wins on day trips and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Myrtle Beach
44match

Wins on prices and families 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

Myrtle Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
172 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
MarbellaMyrtle Beach

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.

Myrtle Beach 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). Myrtle Beach: 1971-2000 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Myrtle Beach Air Force Base (5.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMarbellaMyrtle 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
Elevation22 m8 m
Main airportMálaga-Costa del Sol Airport (AGP)39 km from centre166 non-stop destinationsMyrtle Beach International Airport (MYR)5 km from centre60 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureMarbellaMyrtle Beach
City population159,78635,682
People per km²1,398591
Museums within 10 km62
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Myrtle 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.