VacationSelector
Pulteney Bridge and the weir on the Avon, Bath
BathPulteney Bridge and the weir on the Avon
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river

Photos: Bath by Lucas Carlini, Pexels License; Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Bath 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 Bath for

  • wellness
  • shopping
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Bilbao for

  • food and drink
  • beaches
  • nightlife

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. Bath 10, Bilbao 45: Bilbao leads by 35 points.
Food & drink. Bath 44, Bilbao 81: Bilbao leads by 37 points.
Culture & sights. Bath 68, Bilbao 62: Bath leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Bath 30, Bilbao 54: Bilbao leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bath 58, Bilbao 75: Bilbao leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Bath 80, Bilbao 78: Bath leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Bath 50, Bilbao 55: Bilbao leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Bath 72, Bilbao 79: Bilbao leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Bath 54, Bilbao 47: Bath leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Bath 27, Bilbao 44: Bilbao leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bath 44, Bilbao 53: Bilbao leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bath 78, Bilbao 33: Bath leads by 45 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bath and Bilbao.

Your match

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

Bath
51match

Wins on wellness and shopping with your weighting.

Bilbao
Best match
59match

Wins on food and drink 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.

Bath in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
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
BathBilbao

Where the figures come from

Bath's temperatures are measured 29 km from the centre, at Lyneham.

Bath 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. Bath: 1991-2020 normals, Lyneham (29.2 km from centre). Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBathBilbao
Official languageEnglishSpanish
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999112
Elevation132 m19 m
Main airportBristol Airport (BRS)25 km from centre117 non-stop destinationsBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBathBilbao
City population94,092351,124
People per km²3,2458,440
Museums within 10 km1717
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone1 month

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bath 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). 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. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.