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 Christuskirche among palms, Windhoek
WindhoekThe Christuskirche among palms

Photos: Marbella by Décio Franchini, Pexels License; Windhoek by Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Marbella or Windhoek?

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
  • day trips
  • families

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

Choose Windhoek for

  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Windhoek’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, Windhoek 4: Marbella leads by 72 points.
Food & drink. Marbella 60, Windhoek 36: Marbella leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Marbella 32, Windhoek 30: Marbella leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Marbella 64, Windhoek 25: Marbella leads by 39 points.
Nature & outdoors. Marbella 70, Windhoek 52: Marbella leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Marbella 77, Windhoek 14: Marbella leads by 63 points.
Good for families. Marbella 70, Windhoek 30: Marbella leads by 40 points.
Getting around. Marbella 38, Windhoek 22: Marbella leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Marbella 58, Windhoek 30: Marbella leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Marbella 30, Windhoek 62: Windhoek leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Marbella 30, Windhoek 18: Marbella leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Marbella 52, Windhoek 30: Marbella leads by 22 points.
0255075100

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

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 day trips with your weighting.

Windhoek
29match

Wins on 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

Windhoek in July

22 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
MarbellaWindhoek

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). Windhoek: 1991-2020 normals, Windhoek (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMarbellaWindhoek
Official languageSpanishEnglish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Namibia Dollar (NAD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzM220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+2
Emergency number112112
Elevation22 m1,650 m
Main airportMálaga-Costa del Sol Airport (AGP)39 km from centre166 non-stop destinationsHosea Kutako International Airport (WDH)41 km from centre15 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMarbellaWindhoek
City population159,786486,169
People per km²1,39895
Museums within 10 km65
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 Windhoek 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.