To keep this short and sweet, I was not a fan of Marseille. It´s a nice little town but there´s not much going on. It´s pretty dirty, old, and smells like fish everywhere. I only went there for one day and one night and that was enough. I wish I had instead used that one day and gone to Monaco instead. If you happen to be in Marseille, the top things to do are:

Notre Dame de la Garde: This is the big church on top of the hill of Marseille that overlooks the city. It has one of the best views of the entire city and you can take some pretty nice panoramic up here. I would suggest going towards the evening and catch the sunset. This definitely made my visit worth it. It was a beautiful day and when the sun was setting it created a beautiful blue and pink skyline. Be warned though, it´s a steep uphill to get to the very top but very worth it. The church also closes are a certain time everyday. I think on the Monday I went, it closed at 6:30pm but I was still able to sit on the outside of the church to watch the sunset.

Vieux-Port of Marseille: There are a ton of sailboats and fishing boats here docked against the port. Along the port are a ton of people selling fresh fish and other types of seafood. It won´t take long for you to walk around it but it is still cool to check out because you can see the blue water and the hill in the background.

Tips:

• Food is pretty expensive so I would buy groceries and cook in the hostel
• Hostel: Vertigo Vieux-Port Hostel
  • Pros: clean and close to the port/water
  • Cons: Really cold at night, weak internet (only works in the lobby), not meant as a place to socialize and meet other people 
• Bus/shuttle from the airport into the city is 6 euros and then you have to take another bus to get from the station to wherever your hostel in
• You can either take a train or bus (bus is cheaper) to go to Nice and that´s about 3 hours. You can also find a blablacar which gets you there faster and for cheaper.
• There doesn´t seem to be a big night life in the city. Well, I didn´t try to go out but the city was pretty dead by around 8pm.