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
York Minster from the city walls, York
YorkYork Minster from the city walls

Photos: Marbella by Décio Franchini, Pexels License; York by PAUL FARMER, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Marbella or York?

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
  • food and drink

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

Choose York for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on York’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, York 14: Marbella leads by 62 points.
Food & drink. Marbella 60, York 42: Marbella leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Marbella 32, York 70: York leads by 38 points.
Nightlife. Marbella 64, York 36: Marbella leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Marbella 70, York 62: Marbella leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Marbella 77, York 80: York leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Marbella 70, York 60: Marbella leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Marbella 38, York 72: York leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. Marbella 58, York 46: Marbella leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Marbella 30, York 38: York leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Marbella 30, York 38: York leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Marbella 52, York 34: Marbella leads by 18 points.
0255075100

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

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.

York
49match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around 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

York in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
MarbellaYork

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.

York 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.

York's sunshine is measured 48 km from the centre, at Leeming.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Marbella: 1991-2020 normals, Malaga / Aeropuerto (39.7 km from centre). York: 1991-2020 normals, Linton-On-Ouse (14.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMarbellaYork
Official languageSpanishEnglish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112 or 999
Elevation22 m25 m
Main airportMálaga-Costa del Sol Airport (AGP)39 km from centre166 non-stop destinationsLeeds Bradford Airport (LBA)39 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureMarbellaYork
City population159,786208,400
People per km²1,398766
Museums within 10 km624
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
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 York 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.