Avignon or Biarritz?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on museums & heritage and good for families with your weighting.
Wins on beaches & swimming with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Avignon if you want a compact historic centre, museums close together, and day trips into protected countryside and listed towns, with hot, mostly dry summers.
Choose Biarritz if the sea is the point: 43 beaches nearby and water reaching 22°C in August, in a much smaller town with gentler summer heat but a lot more rain across the year.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Biarritz leads by 67 points.67
| Avignon | Biarritz | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 67 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 2 |
| Beaches 10 km | 1 | 43 |
| Coast distance | 55 km | 1 km |
| Water distance | — | 1 km |
Places to eat. Avignon leads by 12 points.12
| Avignon | Biarritz | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 44 | 32 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 336 | 207 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 18 | 13 |
Museums & heritage. Avignon leads by 24 points.24
| Avignon | Biarritz | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 55 | 31 |
| Museums within 10 km | 17 | 16 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 16 | 5 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 94 | 31 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 6 | 2 |
Nightlife. Avignon leads by 1 points.1
| Avignon | Biarritz | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 16 | 15 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 115 | 105 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 97 | 82 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 84 | 78 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 4 | 6 |
Nature & day trips. Avignon leads by 14 points.14
| Avignon | Biarritz | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 44 | 30 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 36 | 6 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 31 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 64 |
| Park area within 2 km | 23 hectares | 32 hectares |
Good for families. Avignon leads by 21 points.21
| Avignon | Biarritz | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 42 | 21 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 15 | 2 |
| Park area within 2 km | 23 hectares | 32 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 4 | 1 |
Sights concentration. Avignon leads by 17 points.17
| Avignon | Biarritz | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 40 | 23 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 40 | 15 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Avignon and Biarritz are level on 62.
| Avignon | Biarritz | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 62 | 62 |
| Price level global | 73.7 | 73.7 |
| Daily budget | €160 | €160 |
Year-round weather. Avignon leads by 5 points.5
| Avignon | Biarritz | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 70 | 65 |
| Monthly daytime high | 11.2 °C to 31.2 °C | 13.1 °C to 25.8 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 34 mm to 111 mm | 97 mm to 224 mm |
| Dry months | 2 | 0 |
Where they differ
Avignon has the stronger heritage side: 6 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Biarritz's 2, museums clustered tightly around a centre that holds far more notable buildings within walking distance, and protected land all around rather than a thin fringe. It also suits families better, with many more attractions near the centre and 4 theme parks within reach against 1, plus a wider range of kitchens.
Biarritz answers with the coast: 43 beaches nearby against Avignon's 1, and two months when the sea reaches 21°C or more.
Where they are alike
Neither is a late-night town. They have a similar number of places to drink, mostly near the centre, and while Biarritz has rather more nightclubs, the counts are small in both, so evenings lean on bars and restaurants.
Both are mild rather than extreme across the year, with daytime highs never falling below 11°C in either, and both offer a modest rather than deep choice of restaurants, Avignon's the broader of the two.
Which traveller are you?
Swimmers and beach travellers should take Biarritz, with 43 beaches nearby and sea reaching 22°C in late summer. Avignon has one beach and no warm-sea month, so swimming is not a reason to go.
Heritage walkers should take Avignon, where museums and notable buildings sit close together in a walkable centre, with 6 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach and protected countryside surrounding the town.
Families are better served in Avignon too, with many more attractions near the centre and 4 theme parks within reach against Biarritz's 1, though Biarritz has more park space centrally and cooler summer afternoons.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value comparison between these two carries no information. That figure is a national price level, identical for both by construction, and the €160 daily budget beside it is one national estimate rather than a measurement of either town. Neither can be called the cheaper trip on this evidence.
Biarritz's coastal strength rests on a narrow window: the sea reaches 21°C or more in only two months, and those are the months everyone else arrives. Outside them the water sits at 12-16°C, and rain is heavy in every month, summer included.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Avignon: 1991-2020 normals, Nimes / Courbessac (34 km from centre). Biarritz: 1991-2020 normals, San Sebastian / Fuenterrabia (24.4 km from centre).
Avignon is the better bet from May into June, when highs run 24-28°C and rain stays moderate. July is its driest month at 34mm, though the midsummer heat peaks then. Autumn turns wet, with 111mm in September.
Biarritz peaks later, in July and August, when highs are 25-26°C and the sea reaches 21-22°C. Rain is heavy there in every month, so take the summer window and still expect showers.
Getting there
| Flying from | Avignon | Biarritz |
|---|---|---|
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 25 m €110-119 MRS · 65 km | 1 h 30 m €129-164 BIQ · 3 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 1 h 50 m no fares MRS · 65 km | 2 h 0 m €196-210 1 stop BIO · 111 km |
| MunichMUC | 1 h 35 m no fares MRS · 65 km | 2 h 10 m €203-242 1 stop BIO · 111 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 1 h 35 m no fares MRS · 65 km | 2 h 0 m no fares BIO · 111 km |
| MadridMAD | 1 h 35 m no fares MRS · 65 km | 1 h 5 m €76-169 EAS · 23 km |
| PalmaPMI | 1 h 15 m no fares MRS · 65 km | 1 h 25 m no fares BIO · 111 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 2 h 55 m €219-245 1 stop MRS · 65 km | 3 h 45 m €192-214 BIO · 111 km |
| AlicanteALC | 1 h 35 m €114-174 MRS · 65 km | 1 h 20 m €81-137 BIO · 111 km |
| LisbonLIS | 2 h 10 m €136-184 1 stop MRS · 65 km | 1 h 30 m €129-223 1 stop BIO · 111 km |
| MarrakechRAK | 2 h 45 m no fares FNI · 38 km | 2 h 15 m no fares BIO · 111 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Avignon | Biarritz |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | French | French |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CE230 V, 50 Hz | CE230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 112 |
| Elevation | 10 m | 0 m |
| Main airport | Marseille Provence Airport (MRS)65 km from centre125 non-stop destinations | Biarritz Pays Basque airport (BIQ)3 km from centre24 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 11 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Avignon | Biarritz |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 92,188 | 26,206 |
| People per km² | 1,420 | 2,240 |
| Museums within 10 km | 11 | 8 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 6 | 2 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 36 | 24 |
| 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 Avignon or Biarritz somewhere new.