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
Bell Rock outside Sedona, Sedona
SedonaBell Rock outside Sedona

Photos: Marbella by Décio Franchini, Pexels License; Sedona by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Marbella or Sedona?

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

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • families

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

Choose Sedona for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Sedona’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, Sedona 16: Marbella leads by 60 points.
Food & drink. Marbella 60, Sedona 33: Marbella leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Marbella 32, Sedona 20: Marbella leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Marbella 64, Sedona 8: Marbella leads by 56 points.
Nature & outdoors. Marbella 70, Sedona 93: Sedona leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Marbella 77, Sedona 55: Marbella leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Marbella 70, Sedona 42: Marbella leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Marbella 38, Sedona 22: Marbella leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Marbella 58, Sedona 34: Marbella leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Marbella 30, Sedona 18: Marbella leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Marbella 30, Sedona 13: Marbella leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Marbella 52, Sedona 82: Sedona leads by 30 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Marbella and Sedona.

Your match

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

Marbella
Best match
55match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Sedona
36match

Wins on wellness and nature and the outdoors 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

Sedona in July

34 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
51 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
MarbellaSedona

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.

Sedona's station stands 153 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Sedona 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). Sedona: 2009-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sedona / West Sedona (1.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMarbellaSedona
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-7
Emergency number112911
Elevation22 m1,319 m
Main airportMálaga-Costa del Sol Airport (AGP)39 km from centre166 non-stop destinationsPhoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)160 km from centre149 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureMarbellaSedona
City population159,7869,684
People per km²1,398195
Museums within 10 km60
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months-

Where else could you go?

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