I holidayed in France’s ‘most dangerous’ city and came away unscathed – and enamoured

Tourists shouldn’t be deterred by Marseille’s dicey reputation, says Natalie Wilson after a très bien trip

France’s oldest city is more exciting than frightening (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Don’t google Marseille before you go. Especially, if you’re a woman, solo traveller or both.

Headlines of the horrors in France’s ‘most dangerous city’, ranked as such by several crime indexes, have long slapped a crime capital label onto the Provence port.

Violence and gang activity are among the long list of problems cited as risks to tourists visiting Marseille by the Numbeo database – the city earned a crime rating of 65.9 in 2024.

Given that a cancelled taxi – pre-booked and over €300 to travel just 20 minutes – resulted in threats to send men to our Airbnb and a blocked number before we had even left for the airport, I’d braced to land someplace sketchy. Annoyingly, I was grateful to be travelling with two men.

A view of Basilica Notre Dame de la Garde from Marseille’s lively Old Port (Getty Images)

As France’s oldest city, Marseille has influences from its Greek settlers, Moroccan immigrants and former French colonies in Africa shaping much of the port’s 2,600-year history. I was visiting with family to experience Marseille’s Olympic offerings, trading athletics in the French capital for sailing in the French Riviera.

Read more on France travel:

• Where to eat, sleep and drink in France’s cool, coastal second city
• Why I chose Marseille over Paris for the Olympic Games
• The best hotels in Paris: From Eiffel Tower views to luxury

It’s embarrassing now to admit my efforts to create an itinerary for the weekend had me clutching a zipped Uniqlo bag, bought specifically for this trip, with my phone stashed away for much of my evening in old town Le Panier. This meant an insufficient number of pictures of the undeniably pretty port city and a sore neck from constantly looking over my shoulder.

Le Panier is the artsy heart of the city’s old town (Getty Images)

Given the recent warning of phone snatchers on mopeds stationed outside my London office, this was a over-the-top reaction to the threat of petty theft that all city dwellers face daily.

As such, general Foreign Office (FCDO) advice for France encourages British tourists to take the usual package of travel precautions: “There is a high threat of terrorist attack globally affecting UK interests and British nationals.”

“Stay aware of your surroundings at all times” and “be vigilant in public places”.

The same advice is issued for holiday hotspots Spain, Greece and Portugal – all popular destinations, usually booked without safety reservations.

Olympic sailing and windsurfing events blew out of Marseille Marina (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

After my first day at the sailing floated by uneventfully (bar the lack of wind) I started to get over the danger label and treat the trip as I would any European city break, admittedly still slightly wary of watching an Olympic football game the next night.

Last September, Brighton and Hove Albion fans were warned to “expect a hostile atmosphere“ at an October match playing the Orange Vélodrome.

At the time, Adrian Morris, head of safety and security for the club told BBC Radio Sussex that the reality was French concerns surrounding British behaviour: “In Marseille, the police have had so many problems over the years with teams that visit, that they use these measures to try and keep the fans safe.”

As the first full-scale football match I had ever watched, any football hooligan fears from past coverage of matches at the stadium were obviously misplaced given the event – a half-full Canada v Germany women’s quarter-final on the Olympic programme.

The game kicked off without a hitch, as did every meal, stroll, boat trip and taxi ride.

The Orange Vélodrome is the second-largest stadium in France (Getty Images)

A short drive down the coast from the pastel marina of Cassis and the blues of the Calanques National Park, Marseille is a functional city where people live and work. A maze of colourful streets, fromageries and clear coastline where I ate an ungodly amount of burrata.

If it was a case of a city cleaning up its act to host a handful of Olympic events, then it scrubbed up very well. French President Emmanuel Macron had pledged €1.5 billion to tackle the culture in Marseille, making efforts to improve education, housing and safety in 2021.

There is still organised crime and gang violence, that’s a fact, but the scary statistics promising sketchy encounters on every rue failed to materialise.

Sure, heed advice to avoid the northern quarters in the same way a quick search of London would advise you to tread carefully as a tourist in Westminster, but it would be foolish to write off Marseille for a weekend away.

The Calanques of Marseille – rocky coves in a palette of blue (Getty Images)

The intense heat and dry baguettes on the menu at the sailing felt far more dangerous to my well-being than any interactions I had. In contrast to the blunt, snobby stereotype, these were some of the friendliest French people I’ve ever met.

By the end of the weekend, I was asking locals in broken French to watch my bag on the beach while I went for a dip in the Med. A far cry from the pathetic phone-hiding attempts I’d made at the start of the trip.

If you take reasonable precautions, as you should on any city break, you’ll find an unpretentious, rough-around-the-edges but still stunning slice of the south of France.

Prospective travellers – free yourselves from the shackles of the search bar and plan a stay in Marseille. It’s worth it.

Read more: The ultimate France travel guide: Everything you need to know before you go