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
Seven Mile Beach, Negril
NegrilSeven Mile Beach

Photos: Marbella by Décio Franchini, Pexels License; Negril by gustavo.kunst, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Marbella or Negril?

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

  • shopping
  • day trips
  • families

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

Choose Negril for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Negril’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, Negril 93: Negril leads by 17 points.
Food & drink. Marbella 60, Negril 36: Marbella leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Marbella 32, Negril 8: Marbella leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Marbella 64, Negril 40: Marbella leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Marbella 70, Negril 60: Marbella leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Marbella 77, Negril 35: Marbella leads by 42 points.
Good for families. Marbella 70, Negril 45: Marbella leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Marbella 38, Negril 30: Marbella leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Marbella 58, Negril 15: Marbella leads by 43 points.
Affordability. Marbella 30, Negril 44: Negril leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Marbella 30, Negril 33: Negril leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Marbella and Negril are level on 52.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Marbella and Negril.

Your match

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

Marbella
Best match
55match

Wins on shopping and day trips with your weighting.

Negril
41match

Wins on beaches and prices 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

Negril in July

34 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
174 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
MarbellaNegril

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.

Negril's temperatures are measured 52 km from the centre, at Montego Bay / Sangster.

Negril 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). Negril: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (51.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMarbellaNegril
Official languageSpanishEnglish, Jamaican Patois
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Jamaican Dollar (JMD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB116 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number112Police 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation22 m10 m
Main airportMálaga-Costa del Sol Airport (AGP)39 km from centre166 non-stop destinationsSangster International Airport (MBJ)52 km from centre48 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureMarbellaNegril
City population159,7864,500
People per km²1,398-
Museums within 10 km60
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Marbella or Negril 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.