VacationSelector
Galena Street with the runs of Aspen Mountain, Aspen
AspenGalena Street with the runs of Aspen Mountain
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river

Photos: Aspen by Moroder, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Aspen 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 Aspen for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • shopping

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

Choose Bilbao for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • beaches

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. Aspen 6, Bilbao 45: Bilbao leads by 39 points.
Food & drink. Aspen 45, Bilbao 81: Bilbao leads by 36 points.
Culture & sights. Aspen 22, Bilbao 62: Bilbao leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Aspen 40, Bilbao 54: Bilbao leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Aspen 95, Bilbao 75: Aspen leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Aspen 30, Bilbao 78: Bilbao leads by 48 points.
Good for families. Aspen and Bilbao are level on 55.
Getting around. Aspen 72, Bilbao 79: Bilbao leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Aspen 50, Bilbao 47: Aspen leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Aspen 5, Bilbao 44: Bilbao leads by 39 points.
Live music & performing arts. Aspen 50, Bilbao 53: Bilbao leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Aspen 50, Bilbao 33: Aspen leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Aspen and Bilbao.

Your match

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

Aspen
43match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and wellness with your weighting.

Bilbao
Best match
59match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Aspen in July

27 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
33 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 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

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
AspenBilbao

Where the figures come from

Aspen 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. Aspen: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Aspen / Woody Creek (5.2 km from centre). Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAspenBilbao
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
Elevation2,405 m19 m
Main airportAspen-Pitkin County Airport (Sardy Field) (ASE)5 km from centre11 non-stop destinationsBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAspenBilbao
City population7,004351,124
People per km²7008,440
Museums within 10 km217
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
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 Aspen 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). 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. 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.