VacationSelector
La Major cathedral from the harbour, Marseille
MarseilleLa Major cathedral from the harbour
Rabelo boats on the Douro and the Ribeira, Porto
PortoRabelo boats on the Douro and the Ribeira

Photos: Marseille by Charlotte Noblet, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Porto by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Marseille or Porto?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

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

Choose Porto for

  • prices
  • getting around
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Porto’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, Porto 40: Marseille leads by 32 points.
Food & drink. Marseille 67, Porto 70: Porto leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Marseille 63, Porto 68: Porto leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Marseille 57, Porto 65: Porto leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Marseille 83, Porto 64: Marseille leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Marseille 86, Porto 79: Marseille leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Marseille 50, Porto 52: Porto leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Marseille 57, Porto 66: Porto leads by 9 points.
Shopping & style. Marseille 47, Porto 52: Porto leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Marseille 45, Porto 62: Porto leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Marseille 56, Porto 52: Marseille leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Marseille 37, Porto 34: Marseille leads by 3 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Marseille
60match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Porto
59match

Wins on prices 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

Porto in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
22 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
17 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
MarseillePorto

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Marseille: 1991-2020 normals, Marseille / Marignane (20.6 km from centre). Porto: 1991-2020 normals, Porto / Serra Do Pilar (2.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMarseillePorto
Official languageFrenchPortuguese
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation0 m104 m
Main airportMarseille Provence Airport (MRS)21 km from centre126 non-stop destinationsFrancisco de Sá Carneiro Airport (OPO)12 km from centre134 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureMarseillePorto
City population886,040273,476
People per km²3,6836,606
Museums within 10 km2742
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13
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 Porto 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.