VacationSelector
La Major cathedral from the harbour, Marseille
MarseilleLa Major cathedral from the harbour
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay

Photos: Marseille by Charlotte Noblet, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License.

Marseille or Montego Bay?

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

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Montego Bay for

  • beaches
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Montego Bay’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, Montego Bay 84: Montego Bay leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Marseille 67, Montego Bay 50: Marseille leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Marseille 63, Montego Bay 28: Marseille leads by 35 points.
Nightlife. Marseille 57, Montego Bay 42: Marseille leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Marseille 83, Montego Bay 65: Marseille leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Marseille 86, Montego Bay 50: Marseille leads by 36 points.
Good for families. Marseille 50, Montego Bay 48: Marseille leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Marseille 57, Montego Bay 20: Marseille leads by 37 points.
Shopping & style. Marseille 47, Montego Bay 25: Marseille leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Marseille 45, Montego Bay 38: Marseille leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Marseille 56, Montego Bay 32: Marseille leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Marseille 37, Montego Bay 45: Montego Bay leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Marseille and Montego Bay.

Your match

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

Marseille
Best match
60match

Wins on getting around and day trips with your weighting.

Montego Bay
44match

Wins on beaches and wellness 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

Montego Bay in July

34 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
75 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
MarseilleMontego Bay

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Marseille: 1991-2020 normals, Marseille / Marignane (20.6 km from centre). Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMarseilleMontego Bay
Official languageFrenchEnglish, Jamaican Patois
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Jamaican Dollar (JMD)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzAB116 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number112Police 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation0 m19 m
Main airportMarseille Provence Airport (MRS)21 km from centre126 non-stop destinationsSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureMarseilleMontego Bay
City population886,040123,994
People per km²3,683-
Museums within 10 km270
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Marseille or Montego Bay 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. 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.