VacationSelector

Baden-Baden or San Sebastian?

Two destinations compared in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.

The Friedrichsbad, the historic bathhouse, Baden-Baden
Baden-Baden

Photo: Kent Wang, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped

La Concha beach and Monte Urgull, San Sebastian
San Sebastian

Photo: Guérin Nicolas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped

Your match

Baden-Baden
50
match

Wins on wellness and live music and the arts with your weighting.

San Sebastian
✓ Best match
60
match

Wins on beaches and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.

Scoreboard

Our verdict on each category, scored 0 to 100 against fixed benchmark cities.

Baden-BadenSan Sebastian
Beaches & swimming. San Sebastian leads by 60 points.60
Food & drink. San Sebastian leads by 43 points.43
Culture & sights. Baden-Baden and San Sebastian are level on 52.
Nightlife. San Sebastian leads by 29 points.29
Nature & outdoors. San Sebastian leads by 2 points.2
Day trips. San Sebastian leads by 2 points.2
Good for families. San Sebastian leads by 16 points.16
Getting around. San Sebastian leads by 18 points.18
Shopping & style. San Sebastian leads by 2 points.2
Affordability. San Sebastian leads by 2 points.2
Live music & performing arts. Baden-Baden leads by 13 points.13
Wellness & relaxation. Baden-Baden leads by 46 points.46
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Baden-Baden and San Sebastian.

When should you go?

Pick the month you can travel and see both cities side by side. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Climate figures for July
JulyBaden-BadenSan Sebastian
Daytime high25 °C22 °C
Night-time low14 °C16 °C
Rainfall in the month117 mm92 mm
Sunshine8 hours a day7 hours a day
Sea temperatureNo sea21 °C
Daylight16 hours a day15 hours a day

The whole year

Each row is shaded against that destination’s own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that figure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Daytime high, °C
Baden-Baden
6
7
11
16
20
23
25
25
21
15
10
6
San Sebastian
11
12
14
15
18
20
22
23
21
19
14
12
Sea temperature, °C
Baden-Baden
No coastline within reach
San Sebastian
13
12
13
14
16
19
21
22
21
18
16
14
Rainfall, mm
Baden-Baden
107
99
106
79
119
104
117
102
91
109
113
122
San Sebastian
151
125
119
126
122
96
92
109
117
155
203
153
Daylight, hours per day
Baden-Baden
9
10
12
14
15
16
16
14
13
11
9
8
San Sebastian
9
11
12
13
15
15
15
14
13
11
10
9
Sunshine, hours per day
Baden-Baden
2
3
5
6
7
8
8
7
6
3
2
1
San Sebastian
3
4
5
5
7
6
7
6
6
5
3
3

Where the figures come from

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. Baden-Baden: 1991-2020 normals, Baden-Baden-Geroldsau (3.9 km from centre). San Sebastian: 1991-2020 normals, San Sebastian / Igueldo (6.1 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Getting there

Flying fromBaden-BadenSan Sebastian
PalmaPMI
2 h 0 m
no fares
FKB · 12 km
1 h 25 m
no fares
BIO · 75 km
ParisCDG, ORY, BVA
1 h 15 m
no fares
STR · 72 km
1 h 30 m
€129-164
BIQ · 40 km
LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2
1 h 30 m
no fares
FKB · 12 km
1 h 45 m
€126-289
1 stop
BIQ · 40 km
AlicanteALC
2 h 15 m
€136-156
FKB · 12 km
1 h 20 m
€81-137
BIO · 75 km
AmsterdamAMS
1 h 15 m
€213-254
STR · 72 km
2 h 0 m
€196-210
1 stop
BIO · 75 km
MunichMUC
55 m
no fares
STR · 72 km
2 h 10 m
€203-242
1 stop
BIO · 75 km
FrankfurtFRA, HHN
50 m
no fares
STR · 72 km
2 h 0 m
no fares
BIO · 75 km
TenerifeTFS, TFN
4 h 20 m
no fares
FKB · 12 km
3 h 10 m
no fares
BIO · 75 km
MarrakechRAK
3 h 15 m
no fares
BSL · 140 km
2 h 15 m
no fares
BIO · 75 km
New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA
7 h 55 m
€537-713
FRA · 143 km
7 h 20 m
no fares
BIO · 75 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

MeasureBaden-BadenSan Sebastian
Official languageGermanSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation181 m6 m
Main airportKarlsruhe Baden-Baden Airport (FKB)12 km from centre43 non-stop destinationsSan Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBaden-BadenSan Sebastian
City population56,952189,866
People per km²4063,118
Museums within 10 km1114
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km23
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 Baden-Baden or San Sebastian somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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. Typical fares from Travelpayouts (Aviasales data). Route-level air passenger statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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 and flight figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-27. Typical prices can be up to 7 days old. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.