Marseille
France
France’s oldest city, a Mediterranean port with limestone fjords on its southern edge
Photos by Clément Griffet, Romain Galoché, Hugo Vidal and Bananna Wintour on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of France
April to June, and September to October — the high summer is hot and the calanques are rationed then
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 80mm in Oct
Where it is
43.30°N, 5.37°E Open in Google Maps
Things to do
A week easily- Walk into the Calanques from Luminy and swim off the rocks
- Climb to Notre-Dame de la Garde for the whole coast
- Eat at Noailles market rather than on the port
- Take the boat to the Frioul islands
- Get lost in Le Panier in the early evening
Marseille travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget France
Mid-rangeCards everywhere, including the bakery. Refuse the conversion when a terminal offers to charge you in your own currency, which is the one way to lose money here.
ATMs & cards
Use a bank machine — Crédit Agricole, BNP, Société Générale, LCL. The independent machines in tourist streets charge and the bank ones do not.
Avoid these
- the independent machines around the Vieux-Port
Use these instead
- Crédit Agricole
- BNP Paribas
- Société Générale
- LCL
Refuse the conversion when a terminal offers to charge you in your own currency, which is the one reliable way to lose money in France.
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of France
Stay alertMarseille asks for more attention than any other French city, and the guide should say so rather than talk it up. Phone-snatching and pickpocketing are organised and frequent around the Vieux-Port, Noailles, Belsunce and Saint-Charles station, scooters take bags from pavements, and cars are broken into at the beaches and the Calanques. The violence the city is known for is drug-trade violence in the northern arrondissements, which no visitor has a reason to enter. Le Panier, the Corniche and Cours Julien are fine by day and busy into the evening; after dark, the station district and the streets north of La Canebière are where to take a taxi rather than walk.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (10 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
Worth more attention
- the Vieux-Port and Metro line 1 — pickpocketing is organised and frequent, and phones are taken from hands and café tables
- Noailles, Belsunce and Saint-Charles station — the streets north of La Canebière, and after dark the district is one to cross by taxi rather than on foot
- the northern arrondissements — where the drug-trade violence the city is known for happens; no visitor has a reason to be there
- pavements beside the road — bag-snatching from scooters is a Marseille speciality; keep the bag on the building side
- the beach car parks and the Calanques — break-ins are routine and nothing should be left visible; in high summer the Calanques paths close on fire-risk days
Marseille needs more attention than any other French city, and the difference from a visitor’s point of view is theft rather than violence. Le Panier, the Corniche and Cours Julien are fine by day and busy into the evening..
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa France visa rules
No visa needed
Freedom of movement — no time limit, and no visa. Bring a passport or national ID card.
Other passports
No visa neededup to 90 days
90 days within any 180-day period, counted across the whole Schengen area, not per country. ETIAS, a paid online authorisation, is being introduced for these passports — check the official link for whether it applies to your travel dates.
Visa required in advance€90 (Schengen short-stay visa)
A Schengen short-stay visa is applied for before travel, at the consulate of your main destination.
How to get it: Apply at the consulate or visa centre of the country you will spend most time in, typically 15 working days ahead and no more than six months before travel.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Health & emergencies all of France
Excellent and cheapRequired to enter
No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Routine vaccinations up to date
Getting treated
EU/EEA and Swiss visitors are treated on the same terms as residents with an EHIC or GHIC card; UK visitors use a GHIC. Everyone else pays, and travel insurance is worth having for the repatriation cover rather than the treatment.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
Very goodBouillabaisse properly made is expensive, takes two days’ notice at the serious places, and is nothing like the tourist version on the Vieux-Port. The North African food here is the best in France — couscous, brik, and the markets at Noailles.
Nightlife
Pastis on a terrace at seven, then the Cours Julien, which is the whole of the city’s nightlife in one hill.
- Cours Julien — bars, street art and live music, all of it up one set of steps
- the Vieux-Port — touristy, expensive, and the view is the point
- La Plaine — the rougher-edged version of Cours Ju, and where locals go
- Le Panier — a few small bars in the old lanes, quiet by comparison
Closing: Bars to 2am, clubs until dawn in summer when they move to the beach.
A beer in a bar: €4–7
Getting around
Easy- UberWorks here
- BoltWorks here
- G7Works here
- FREE NOWWorks here
G7 the taxi fleet, by app
- Against a taxi
- Much the same. The flat airport rate is a taxi rule and the apps price against it.
Time zone and your working day
Europe/Paris — 6 hours ahead of you
2 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — 09:00–11:00 your time, 15:00–17:00 theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 03:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 03:00–11:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
Internet speedall of France
Why these are France's numbers and not Marseille's
Home broadband — Fast. Several people on calls at once, large uploads, 4K. Broadband here runs at 2.6× the global median of 130 Mbps.
Mobile data — Good. Maps, calls and streaming, and enough to tether a laptop for an afternoon. Mobile runs at 1.2× the global median of 109 Mbps.
Ookla publishes no separate figure for Marseille, so these are medians for all of France. Cities usually beat the national number and remote islands and national parks fall well below it — treat this as the country's shape, not as a measurement of the street you will be staying on.
A median is the middle of every connection tested there, old copper and new fibre together — so in a country part-way through laying fibre it sits well below what a fibre line actually delivers, and a rental on one can run several times this number. Half of the connections are slower; a fibre flat is rarely one of them. It says what a place can do, not what your rental does, so every listing on Holistay carries its own measured speed and the date it was tested.
Getting online: Airalo or Holafly — a data eSIM for France, installed before you fly and working the moment you land.
Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured June 2026
Must-see
Nearby day trips
Say a few words
French
- HelloBonjourbon-ZHOOR
- PleaseS'il vous plaîtseel voo PLEH
- Thank youMercimer-SEE
- Yes / NoOui / Nonwee / non
4 more phrases
- Excuse meExcusez-moiex-koo-zay MWA
- How much is it?C'est combien ?say com-BYEN
- The bill, pleaseL'addition, s'il vous plaîtla-dee-SYON
- Cheers!Santé !son-TAY
Open with bonjour before anything else. Launching straight into a question without it reads as rude, and explains a lot of reputed French coldness.
Religion
Catholic, and strictly secular
Laïcité is a constitutional principle: religion is kept out of public institutions, and conspicuous religious symbols are banned in state schools. Cover shoulders in cathedrals.
Do's and don'ts
Do
- Say bonjour before anything else, every single time you enter a shop
- Keep your voice down in restaurants and on public transport
- Keep both hands visible on the table while eating, wrists on the edge
- Dress a notch smarter than you would at home — it changes how you are treated
Don't
- Do not ask for a doggy bag or substitutions; the dish arrives as the kitchen intends
- Do not start with English without at least attempting bonjour, parlez-vous anglais
- Do not tip more than rounding up — service is included by law
- Do not eat while walking; it reads as slightly uncivilised
Where to stay in Marseille
No Holistay rentals in Marseille yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Marseille on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Marseille Provence MRS
25 minfrom the airport· 20 km as the crow flies
25 min by shuttle bus to Saint-Charles.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
