VacationSelector
Skiers at the Albion base of the ski area, Alta, Utah
Alta, UtahSkiers at the Albion base of the ski area
La Concha beach and Monte Urgull, San Sebastian
San SebastianLa Concha beach and Monte Urgull

Photos: Alta, Utah by Sumanch, CC BY 3.0, cropped; San Sebastian by Guérin Nicolas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Alta, Utah or San Sebastian?

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 San Sebastian for

  • food and drink
  • beaches
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on San Sebastian’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, San Sebastian 68: San Sebastian leads by 65 points.
Food & drink. Alta, Utah 15, San Sebastian 88: San Sebastian leads by 73 points.
Culture & sights. Alta, Utah 5, San Sebastian 52: San Sebastian leads by 47 points.
Nightlife. Alta, Utah 4, San Sebastian 44: San Sebastian leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. Alta, Utah 90, San Sebastian 72: Alta, Utah leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Alta, Utah 40, San Sebastian 80: San Sebastian leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Alta, Utah 30, San Sebastian 66: San Sebastian leads by 36 points.
Getting around. Alta, Utah 35, San Sebastian 80: San Sebastian leads by 45 points.
Shopping & style. Alta, Utah 4, San Sebastian 40: San Sebastian leads by 36 points.
Affordability. Alta, Utah 15, San Sebastian 32: San Sebastian leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Alta, Utah 3, San Sebastian 45: San Sebastian leads by 42 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Alta, Utah 35, San Sebastian 50: San Sebastian leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Alta, Utah and San Sebastian.

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.

San Sebastian
Best match
60match

Wins on food and drink and beaches 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

San Sebastian in July

22 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
92 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-5°0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Alta, UtahSan Sebastian

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.

San Sebastian's station stands 252 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

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. San Sebastian: 1991-2020 normals, San Sebastian / Igueldo (6.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAlta, UtahSan Sebastian
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation2,610 m6 m
Main airportSalt Lake City International Airport (SLC)37 km from centre108 non-stop destinationsSan Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlta, UtahSan Sebastian
City population228189,866
People per km²193,118
Museums within 10 km014
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km03
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 San Sebastian 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.