VacationSelector
La Major cathedral from the harbour, Marseille
MarseilleLa Major cathedral from the harbour
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: Marseille by Charlotte Noblet, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Marseille or Valparaiso?

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 Valparaiso for

  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Valparaiso’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, Valparaiso 36: Marseille leads by 36 points.
Food & drink. Marseille 67, Valparaiso 50: Marseille leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Marseille 63, Valparaiso 62: Marseille leads by 1 points.
Nightlife. Marseille 57, Valparaiso 56: Marseille leads by 1 points.
Nature & outdoors. Marseille 83, Valparaiso 60: Marseille leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Marseille 86, Valparaiso 63: Marseille leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Marseille 50, Valparaiso 33: Marseille leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Marseille 57, Valparaiso 44: Marseille leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Marseille 47, Valparaiso 30: Marseille leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Marseille 45, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Marseille 56, Valparaiso 38: Marseille leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Marseille 37, Valparaiso 18: Marseille leads by 19 points.
0255075100

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

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 nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Valparaiso
46match

Wins on prices 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

Valparaiso in July

15 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
71 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
MarseilleValparaiso

Where the figures come from

Valparaiso has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Marseille: 1991-2020 normals, Marseille / Marignane (20.6 km from centre). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMarseilleValparaiso
Official languageFrenchSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number112Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation0 m21 m
Main airportMarseille Provence Airport (MRS)21 km from centre126 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureMarseilleValparaiso
City population886,040296,655
People per km²3,6836,180
Museums within 10 km2717
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Valparaiso 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.