VacationSelector
Grote Markt and the Brabo Fountain, Antwerp
AntwerpGrote Markt and the Brabo Fountain
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river

Photos: Antwerp by Norbert Jakab, Pexels License; Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Antwerp or Bilbao?

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 Antwerp for

  • shopping
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose Bilbao for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Bilbao’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. Antwerp 15, Bilbao 45: Bilbao leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Antwerp 62, Bilbao 81: Bilbao leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Antwerp 73, Bilbao 62: Antwerp leads by 11 points.
Nightlife. Antwerp 56, Bilbao 54: Antwerp leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Antwerp 33, Bilbao 75: Bilbao leads by 42 points.
Day trips. Antwerp 86, Bilbao 78: Antwerp leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Antwerp 62, Bilbao 55: Antwerp leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Antwerp 75, Bilbao 79: Bilbao leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Antwerp 70, Bilbao 47: Antwerp leads by 23 points.
Affordability. Antwerp 38, Bilbao 44: Bilbao leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Antwerp 58, Bilbao 53: Antwerp leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Antwerp 30, Bilbao 33: Bilbao leads by 3 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Antwerp and Bilbao.

Your match

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

Antwerp
55match

Wins on shopping and culture and sights with your weighting.

Bilbao
Best match
59match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

Antwerp in July

23 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
78 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Bilbao in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
54 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
AntwerpBilbao

Where the figures come from

Antwerp 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.

Antwerp's sunshine is measured 47 km from the centre, at Uccle.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Antwerp: 1991-2020 normals, Antwerpen / Deurne (5.2 km from centre). Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAntwerpBilbao
Official languageFrench, German, DutchSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation7 m19 m
Main airportBrussels Airport (BRU)36 km from centre191 non-stop destinationsBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAntwerpBilbao
City population529,247351,124
People per km²2,5428,440
Museums within 10 km3817
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km92
Swim season, months above 21 °C-1 month

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Antwerp or Bilbao 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.