VacationSelector
Titanic Belfast, Belfast
BelfastTitanic Belfast
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river

Photos: Belfast by Nico Kaiser, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Belfast 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 Belfast for

  • prices
  • families
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Bilbao for

  • food and drink
  • beaches
  • getting around

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. Belfast 20, Bilbao 45: Bilbao leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Belfast 50, Bilbao 81: Bilbao leads by 31 points.
Culture & sights. Belfast 55, Bilbao 62: Bilbao leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Belfast 50, Bilbao 54: Bilbao leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Belfast 74, Bilbao 75: Bilbao leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Belfast 66, Bilbao 78: Bilbao leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Belfast 58, Bilbao 55: Belfast leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Belfast 62, Bilbao 79: Bilbao leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Belfast 45, Bilbao 47: Bilbao leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Belfast 48, Bilbao 44: Belfast leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Belfast 55, Bilbao 53: Belfast leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Belfast 25, Bilbao 33: Bilbao leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Belfast and Bilbao.

Your match

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

Belfast
51match

Wins on prices and families 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.

Belfast in July

19 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
74 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
17 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
BelfastBilbao

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Belfast: 1991-2020 normals, Belfast / Aldergrove Airport (19.4 km from centre). Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBelfastBilbao
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
Elevation3 m19 m
Main airportGeorge Best Belfast City Airport (BHD)4 km from centre25 non-stop destinationsBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBelfastBilbao
City population345,006351,124
People per km²3,0008,440
Museums within 10 km817
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
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 Belfast 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.