Photos: Marbella by Décio Franchini, Pexels License; West Palm Beach by Michael Rivera, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.
Marbella or West Palm 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
- nightlife
- day trips
- nature and the outdoors
What lies behind each score is written up on Marbella’s own page.
Choose West Palm Beach for
- live music and the arts
- culture and sights
- shopping
What lies behind each score is written up on West Palm Beach’s own page.
Scoreboard
Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.
What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Marbella and West Palm Beach.
Your match
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.
Wins on nightlife and day trips with your weighting.
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
West Palm Beach in July
Daytime high, °C
Rainfall in the month, mm
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.
Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Marbella: 1991-2020 normals, Malaga / Aeropuerto (39.7 km from centre). West Palm Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Palm Beach International (5.8 km from centre).
Before you go
| Measure | Marbella | West Palm Beach |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Spanish | - |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | US Dollar (USD) |
| Sockets | CF230 V, 50 Hz | AB120 V, 60 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer | UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 911 |
| Elevation | 22 m | 6 m |
| Main airport | Málaga-Costa del Sol Airport (AGP)39 km from centre166 non-stop destinations | President Donald J. Trump International Airport (DJT)6 km from centre42 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 12 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Marbella | West Palm Beach |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 159,786 | 117,415 |
| People per km² | 1,398 | 786 |
| Museums within 10 km | 6 | 4 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 3 months | 12 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Marbella or West Palm Beach somewhere new.