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
Ca' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay, Sarasota
SarasotaCa' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay

Photos: Marbella by Décio Franchini, Pexels License; Sarasota by Oleg Yunakov, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Marbella or Sarasota?

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

  • nightlife
  • day trips
  • shopping

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

Choose Sarasota for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Sarasota’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, Sarasota 86: Sarasota leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Marbella 60, Sarasota 44: Marbella leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Marbella 32, Sarasota 45: Sarasota leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Marbella 64, Sarasota 28: Marbella leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Marbella 70, Sarasota 55: Marbella leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Marbella 77, Sarasota 50: Marbella leads by 27 points.
Good for families. Marbella 70, Sarasota 68: Marbella leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Marbella 38, Sarasota 28: Marbella leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Marbella 58, Sarasota 40: Marbella leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Marbella and Sarasota are level on 30.
Live music & performing arts. Marbella 30, Sarasota 58: Sarasota leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Marbella 52, Sarasota 45: Marbella leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Marbella and Sarasota.

Your match

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

Marbella
Best match
55match

Wins on nightlife and day trips with your weighting.

Sarasota
48match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights 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

Sarasota in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
195 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
MarbellaSarasota

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.

Sarasota 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.

Sarasota's sunshine is measured 70 km from the centre, at Tampa International Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Marbella: 1991-2020 normals, Malaga / Aeropuerto (39.7 km from centre). Sarasota: 2006-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sarasota / Ballentine Manor (6.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMarbellaSarasota
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 m7 m
Main airportMálaga-Costa del Sol Airport (AGP)39 km from centre166 non-stop destinationsSarasota Bradenton International Airport (SRQ)7 km from centre70 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMarbellaSarasota
City population159,78654,842
People per km²1,398840
Museums within 10 km63
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Marbella or Sarasota 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.