VacationSelector
La Major cathedral from the harbour, Marseille
MarseilleLa Major cathedral from the harbour
Waterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor, Newport Beach
Newport BeachWaterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor

Photos: Marseille by Charlotte Noblet, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Newport Beach by Don Ramey Logan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Marseille or Newport 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 Marseille for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • prices

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

Choose Newport Beach for

  • families
  • shopping
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Newport Beach’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, Newport Beach 70: Marseille leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Marseille 67, Newport Beach 50: Marseille leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Marseille 63, Newport Beach 20: Marseille leads by 43 points.
Nightlife. Marseille 57, Newport Beach 33: Marseille leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Marseille 83, Newport Beach 66: Marseille leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Marseille 86, Newport Beach 70: Marseille leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Marseille 50, Newport Beach 80: Newport Beach leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Marseille 57, Newport Beach 20: Marseille leads by 37 points.
Shopping & style. Marseille 47, Newport Beach 62: Newport Beach leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Marseille 45, Newport Beach 15: Marseille leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Marseille 56, Newport Beach 46: Marseille leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Marseille 37, Newport Beach 44: Newport Beach leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Marseille and Newport Beach.

Your match

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

Marseille
Best match
60match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around with your weighting.

Newport Beach
48match

Wins on families and shopping 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

Newport Beach in July

26 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
MarseilleNewport Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Marseille: 1991-2020 normals, Marseille / Marignane (20.6 km from centre). Newport Beach: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1981-2010) normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (7.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMarseilleNewport Beach
Official languageFrench-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation0 m3 m
Main airportMarseille Provence Airport (MRS)21 km from centre126 non-stop destinationsJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)7 km from centre53 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMarseilleNewport Beach
City population886,04085,239
People per km²3,683622
Museums within 10 km274
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Marseille or Newport Beach 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.