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 pink Don CeSar hotel seen from the beach, St. Pete Beach
St. Pete BeachThe pink Don CeSar hotel seen from the beach

Photos: Marbella by Décio Franchini, Pexels License; St. Pete Beach by Jeffrey Eisen, Pexels License.

Marbella or St. Pete 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

  • shopping
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

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

Choose St. Pete Beach for

  • beaches
  • families
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on St. Pete 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, St. Pete Beach 87: St. Pete Beach leads by 11 points.
Food & drink. Marbella 60, St. Pete Beach 40: Marbella leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Marbella 32, St. Pete Beach 18: Marbella leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Marbella 64, St. Pete Beach 28: Marbella leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Marbella 70, St. Pete Beach 57: Marbella leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Marbella 77, St. Pete Beach 58: Marbella leads by 19 points.
Good for families. Marbella 70, St. Pete Beach 72: St. Pete Beach leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Marbella 38, St. Pete Beach 30: Marbella leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Marbella 58, St. Pete Beach 20: Marbella leads by 38 points.
Affordability. Marbella 30, St. Pete Beach 32: St. Pete Beach leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Marbella 30, St. Pete Beach 20: Marbella leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Marbella 52, St. Pete Beach 42: Marbella leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Marbella and St. Pete Beach.

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 nightlife with your weighting.

St. Pete Beach
42match

Wins on beaches 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

St. Pete Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
185 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
MarbellaSt. Pete 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.

St. Pete 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.

St. Pete Beach's sunshine is measured 34 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). St. Pete Beach: 1998-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Saint Petersburg (12.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMarbellaSt. Pete 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 m2 m
Main airportMálaga-Costa del Sol Airport (AGP)39 km from centre166 non-stop destinationsSt. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport (PIE)21 km from centre60 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMarbellaSt. Pete Beach
City population159,7868,879
People per km²1,398173
Museums within 10 km62
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 St. Pete 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.