VacationSelector
La Major cathedral from the harbour, Marseille
MarseilleLa Major cathedral from the harbour
The Space Needle behind Pier 70, Seattle
SeattleThe Space Needle behind Pier 70

Photos: Marseille by Charlotte Noblet, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Seattle by Caio, Pexels License.

Marseille or Seattle?

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
  • prices

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

Choose Seattle for

  • families
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Seattle’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, Seattle 30: Marseille leads by 42 points.
Food & drink. Marseille 67, Seattle 66: Marseille leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Marseille 63, Seattle 50: Marseille leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Marseille 57, Seattle 55: Marseille leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Marseille 83, Seattle 87: Seattle leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Marseille 86, Seattle 55: Marseille leads by 31 points.
Good for families. Marseille 50, Seattle 64: Seattle leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Marseille 57, Seattle 60: Seattle leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Marseille 47, Seattle 52: Seattle leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Marseille 45, Seattle 22: Marseille leads by 23 points.
Live music & performing arts. Marseille 56, Seattle 70: Seattle leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Marseille 37, Seattle 40: Seattle leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Marseille and Seattle.

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.

Seattle
54match

Wins on families and live music and the arts 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

Seattle in July

25 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
15 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
12 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
MarseilleSeattle

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Marseille: 1991-2020 normals, Marseille / Marignane (20.6 km from centre). Seattle: 1991-2020 normals, Seattle-Tacoma Airport (17.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMarseilleSeattle
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 m40 m
Main airportMarseille Provence Airport (MRS)21 km from centre126 non-stop destinationsSeattle–Tacoma International Airport (SEA)18 km from centre135 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMarseilleSeattle
City population886,040737,015
People per km²3,6831,996
Museums within 10 km2727
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 Seattle 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.