VacationSelector
La Major cathedral from the harbour, Marseille
MarseilleLa Major cathedral from the harbour
Hawthorne Bridge and downtown, Portland
PortlandHawthorne Bridge and downtown

Photos: Marseille by Charlotte Noblet, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Portland by Cacophony, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Marseille or Portland?

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 Portland for

  • families
  • getting around
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Portland’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, Portland 20: Marseille leads by 52 points.
Food & drink. Marseille 67, Portland 68: Portland leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Marseille 63, Portland 38: Marseille leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Marseille 57, Portland 52: Marseille leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Marseille 83, Portland 84: Portland leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Marseille 86, Portland 58: Marseille leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Marseille 50, Portland 55: Portland leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Marseille 57, Portland 62: Portland leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Marseille 47, Portland 52: Portland leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Marseille 45, Portland 38: Marseille leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Marseille 56, Portland 55: Marseille leads by 1 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Marseille 37, Portland 42: Portland leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Marseille and Portland.

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.

Portland
52match

Wins on families 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.

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

Portland in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
MarseillePortland

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Marseille: 1991-2020 normals, Marseille / Marignane (20.6 km from centre). Portland: 1991-2020 normals, Portland International Airport (9.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMarseillePortland
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 m152 m
Main airportMarseille Provence Airport (MRS)21 km from centre126 non-stop destinationsPortland International Airport (PDX)10 km from centre88 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureMarseillePortland
City population886,040652,503
People per km²3,6831,736
Museums within 10 km2717
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 Portland 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.