VacationSelector
Skiers at the Albion base of the ski area, Alta, Utah
Alta, UtahSkiers at the Albion base of the ski area
The Hôtel du Palais, Biarritz
BiarritzThe Hôtel du Palais

Photos: Alta, Utah by Sumanch, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Biarritz by Lilipiapia, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Alta, Utah or Biarritz?

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 Alta, Utah for

  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Alta, Utah’s own page.

Choose Biarritz for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Biarritz’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. Alta, Utah 3, Biarritz 68: Biarritz leads by 65 points.
Food & drink. Alta, Utah 15, Biarritz 62: Biarritz leads by 47 points.
Culture & sights. Alta, Utah 5, Biarritz 33: Biarritz leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Alta, Utah 4, Biarritz 36: Biarritz leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Alta, Utah 90, Biarritz 74: Alta, Utah leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Alta, Utah 40, Biarritz 80: Biarritz leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Alta, Utah 30, Biarritz 62: Biarritz leads by 32 points.
Getting around. Alta, Utah 35, Biarritz 58: Biarritz leads by 23 points.
Shopping & style. Alta, Utah 4, Biarritz 42: Biarritz leads by 38 points.
Affordability. Alta, Utah 15, Biarritz 30: Biarritz leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Alta, Utah 3, Biarritz 38: Biarritz leads by 35 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Alta, Utah 35, Biarritz 64: Biarritz leads by 29 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Alta, Utah and Biarritz.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Alta, Utah
23match

Wins on nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Biarritz
Best match
54match

Wins on beaches and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Alta, Utah in July

22 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Biarritz in July

24 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
97 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Alta, UtahBiarritz

Where the figures come from

Alta, Utah has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Alta, Utah: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km. Biarritz: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Biarritz (2.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAlta, UtahBiarritz
Official language-French
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation2,610 m0 m
Main airportSalt Lake City International Airport (SLC)37 km from centre108 non-stop destinationsBiarritz Pays Basque airport (BIQ)3 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlta, UtahBiarritz
City population22826,206
People per km²192,240
Museums within 10 km08
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C-2 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Alta, Utah or Biarritz somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.