VacationSelector
The Qasr al-Farid tomb at Hegra near AlUla, AlUla
AlUlaThe Qasr al-Farid tomb at Hegra near AlUla
The Hôtel du Palais, Biarritz
BiarritzThe Hôtel du Palais

Photos: AlUla by Richard.hargas, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Biarritz by Lilipiapia, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

AlUla 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 AlUla for

  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on AlUla’s own page.

Choose Biarritz for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • getting around

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. AlUla 3, Biarritz 68: Biarritz leads by 65 points.
Food & drink. AlUla 28, Biarritz 62: Biarritz leads by 34 points.
Culture & sights. AlUla 70, Biarritz 33: AlUla leads by 37 points.
Nightlife. AlUla 5, Biarritz 36: Biarritz leads by 31 points.
Nature & outdoors. AlUla 72, Biarritz 74: Biarritz leads by 2 points.
Day trips. AlUla 20, Biarritz 80: Biarritz leads by 60 points.
Good for families. AlUla 35, Biarritz 62: Biarritz leads by 27 points.
Getting around. AlUla 15, Biarritz 58: Biarritz leads by 43 points.
Shopping & style. AlUla 15, Biarritz 42: Biarritz leads by 27 points.
Affordability. AlUla 18, Biarritz 30: Biarritz leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. AlUla 28, Biarritz 38: Biarritz leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. AlUla 45, Biarritz 64: Biarritz leads by 19 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: AlUla and Biarritz.

Your match

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

AlUla
30match

Wins on culture and sights with your weighting.

Biarritz
Best match
54match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

AlUla in July

43 °Cdaytime high
28 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
14 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

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
AlUlaBiarritz

Where the figures come from

AlUla has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. AlUla: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Alula / Al ‘Ulá (23.7 km from centre). Biarritz: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Biarritz (2.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAlUlaBiarritz
Official languageArabicFrench
CurrencySaudi Riyal (SAR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG60 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112 or 911112
Elevation692 m0 m
Main airportAl-Ula International Airport (ULH)24 km from centre8 non-stop destinationsBiarritz Pays Basque airport (BIQ)3 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlUlaBiarritz
City population32,41326,206
People per km²-2,240
Museums within 10 km28
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
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 AlUla or Biarritz somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.