VacationSelector
La Major cathedral from the harbour, Marseille
MarseilleLa Major cathedral from the harbour
Botero sculptures on Plaza Botero, Medellin
MedellinBotero sculptures on Plaza Botero

Photos: Marseille by Charlotte Noblet, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Medellin by Steffen Schmitz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Marseille or Medellin?

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 Marseille for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Medellin for

  • prices
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Medellin’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. Marseille 72, Medellin 5: Marseille leads by 67 points.
Food & drink. Marseille 67, Medellin 58: Marseille leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Marseille 63, Medellin 42: Marseille leads by 21 points.
Nightlife. Marseille 57, Medellin 76: Medellin leads by 19 points.
Nature & outdoors. Marseille 83, Medellin 66: Marseille leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Marseille 86, Medellin 58: Marseille leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Marseille and Medellin are level on 50.
Getting around. Marseille 57, Medellin 55: Marseille leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Marseille 47, Medellin 45: Marseille leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Marseille 45, Medellin 80: Medellin leads by 35 points.
Live music & performing arts. Marseille 56, Medellin 42: Marseille leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Marseille 37, Medellin 30: Marseille leads by 7 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Marseille
Best match
60match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Medellin
51match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Marseille in July

31 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
11 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Medellin in July

29 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
133 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
MarseilleMedellin

Where the figures come from

Medellin 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. Marseille: 1991-2020 normals, Marseille / Marignane (20.6 km from centre). Medellin: 1958-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Medellin / Olaya Herrera (5.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMarseilleMedellin
Official languageFrenchSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number112123
Elevation0 m1,405 m
Main airportMarseille Provence Airport (MRS)21 km from centre126 non-stop destinationsJose Maria Córdova International Airport (MDE)19 km from centre41 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureMarseilleMedellin
City population886,0402,529,403
People per km²3,6836,644
Museums within 10 km2714
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Marseille or Medellin 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.