VacationSelector
The Flame Towers from the seafront, Baku
BakuThe Flame Towers from the seafront
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river

Photos: Baku by Zulfugar Karimov, Pexels License; Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Baku 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 Baku for

  • prices
  • shopping

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

Choose Bilbao for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • 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. Baku 40, Bilbao 45: Bilbao leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Baku 60, Bilbao 81: Bilbao leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Baku and Bilbao are level on 62.
Nightlife. Baku 42, Bilbao 54: Bilbao leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Baku 30, Bilbao 75: Bilbao leads by 45 points.
Day trips. Baku 45, Bilbao 78: Bilbao leads by 33 points.
Good for families. Baku 45, Bilbao 55: Bilbao leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Baku 58, Bilbao 79: Bilbao leads by 21 points.
Shopping & style. Baku 48, Bilbao 47: Baku leads by 1 points.
Affordability. Baku 64, Bilbao 44: Baku leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Baku 52, Bilbao 53: Bilbao leads by 1 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Baku 30, Bilbao 33: Bilbao leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Baku and Bilbao.

Your match

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

Baku
48match

Wins on prices and shopping with your weighting.

Bilbao
Best match
59match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

Baku in July

30 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
5 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
25 °Csea
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

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BakuBilbao

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Baku: 1991-2020 normals, Mashtaga (23.2 km from centre). Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBakuBilbao
Official languageAzerbaijani, Azerbaijani Sign LanguageSpanish
CurrencyAzerbaijan Manat (AZN)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+4UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number102 or 112112
Elevation-28 m19 m
Main airportHeydar Aliyev International Airport (GYD)22 km from centre79 non-stop destinationsBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBakuBilbao
City population2,300,500351,124
People per km²1,0758,440
Museums within 10 km5017
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months1 month

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Baku 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.