Biarritz or Bilbao?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on beaches & swimming with your weighting.
Wins on nightlife and places to eat 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 Biarritz if the sea is the point: 43 beaches within reach, water warm enough to swim at the height of summer, and quiet evenings.
Choose Bilbao if you want a place that works after dark and in bad weather, with a far wider choice of restaurants, more to reach on foot from the centre, and noticeably drier summer months.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Biarritz leads by 36 points.36
| Biarritz | Bilbao | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 67 | 31 |
| Swim season months | 2 | 1 |
| Beaches 10 km | 43 | 1 |
| Coast distance | 1 km | 0 km |
| Water distance | 1 km | 0 km |
Places to eat. Bilbao leads by 30 points.30
| Biarritz | Bilbao | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 32 | 62 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 207 | 840 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 13 | 26 |
Museums & heritage. Bilbao leads by 7 points.7
| Biarritz | Bilbao | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 31 | 38 |
| Museums within 10 km | 16 | 25 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 5 | 12 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 31 | 48 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 2 | 1 |
Nightlife. Bilbao leads by 43 points.43
| Biarritz | Bilbao | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 15 | 58 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 105 | 869 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 82 | 730 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 78 | 84 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 6 | 50 |
Nature & day trips. Bilbao leads by 23 points.23
| Biarritz | Bilbao | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 30 | 53 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 6 | 11 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 64 | 70 |
| Park area within 2 km | 32 hectares | 119 hectares |
Good for families. Bilbao leads by 26 points.26
| Biarritz | Bilbao | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 21 | 47 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 2 | 17 |
| Park area within 2 km | 32 hectares | 119 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 1 | 0 |
Sights concentration. Bilbao leads by 29 points.29
| Biarritz | Bilbao | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 23 | 52 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 15 | 79 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Bilbao leads by 9 points.9
| Biarritz | Bilbao | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 62 | 71 |
| Price level global | 73.7 | 60.8 |
| Daily budget | €160 | €122 |
Year-round weather. Bilbao leads by 5 points.5
| Biarritz | Bilbao | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 65 | 70 |
| Monthly daytime high | 13.1 °C to 25.8 °C | 13.5 °C to 26.3 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 97 mm to 224 mm | 53 mm to 170 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 0 |
Where they differ
Biarritz is the beach trip: 43 beaches against Bilbao's 1, the sea 1km from the centre, and two months of water at 21°C or more against Bilbao's one. It also has a theme park within reach, where Bilbao has none.
Bilbao has many times as many restaurants near the centre and a much wider range of kitchens, many times as many bars and clubs, and far more notable places within walking distance of the centre, so evenings and wet afternoons are both easier to fill.
Where they are alike
Both run daytime highs of about 13-26°C across the year, and neither has a month at 40mm of rain or less, so rain gear travels with you in any season.
Museums are modest in both, Bilbao's a little more numerous and more tightly grouped around the centre, Biarritz's balanced by 2 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Bilbao's 1. The national price levels behind the two countries also sit reasonably close.
Which traveller are you?
Beach-first travellers should take Biarritz: 43 beaches against Bilbao's 1, the sea 1km from the centre, and a longer stretch of the year when the water is warm enough to swim in.
Anyone travelling to eat and go out belongs in Bilbao, with many times as many restaurants near the centre, a far wider range of kitchens, and many times as many bars and clubs, most within walking distance.
Families and walkers also do better in Bilbao: many more attractions near the centre, considerably more park space, and 11% of the surrounding land protected against 6% around Biarritz. Biarritz answers with one theme park.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget figures, €160 and €122, are national estimates of restaurant and hotel price levels, not measurements of Biarritz or Bilbao. A small coastal resort or a large city can sit further from its own country's average than those two averages sit from each other, so read them as background rather than as a verdict on either city.
Biarritz's beach advantage is a count of coastline, not a swimming season: the sea only reaches 21°C or more at the height of summer, and neither city has a month at 40mm of rain or less. Mild does not mean dry here.
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. Biarritz: 1991-2020 normals, San Sebastian / Fuenterrabia (24.4 km from centre). Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre).
Biarritz is at its best in July and August, with highs of 25-26°C and sea at 21-22°C, and it holds that sea warmth into September, the last month worth swimming. Rain does not pause for the season: 97-110mm in midsummer, rising to 146mm in September.
Bilbao is the drier choice over the same stretch, 53-58mm through the peak summer months and 76mm in May where Biarritz gets well over twice that, with much the same daytime warmth. Late autumn is heavy in both.
Getting there
| Flying from | Biarritz | Bilbao |
|---|---|---|
| MadridMAD | 1 h 5 m €76-169 EAS · 23 km | 1 h 0 m no fares BIO · 5 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 1 h 10 m no fares EAS · 23 km | 1 h 15 m €58-78 BIO · 5 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 30 m €129-164 BIQ · 3 km | 1 h 35 m €102 BIO · 5 km |
| PalmaPMI | 1 h 25 m no fares BIO · 111 km | 1 h 25 m no fares BIO · 5 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 2 h 0 m €196-210 1 stop BIO · 111 km | 2 h 0 m €196-210 1 stop BIO · 5 km |
| MunichMUC | 2 h 10 m €203-242 1 stop BIO · 111 km | 2 h 10 m €203-242 1 stop BIO · 5 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 2 h 0 m no fares BIO · 111 km | 2 h 0 m no fares BIO · 5 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 45 m €126-289 1 stop BIQ · 3 km | 1 h 45 m €62-91 BIO · 5 km |
| MarrakechRAK | 2 h 15 m no fares BIO · 111 km | 2 h 15 m no fares BIO · 5 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 7 h 20 m no fares BIO · 111 km | 7 h 20 m no fares BIO · 5 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 2026-09 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 | Biarritz | Bilbao |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | French | Spanish |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CE230 V, 50 Hz | CF230 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 | 0 m | 19 m |
| Main airport | Biarritz Pays Basque airport (BIQ)3 km from centre24 non-stop destinations | Bilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre70 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 11 days | 13 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Biarritz | Bilbao |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 26,206 | 351,124 |
| People per km² | 2,240 | 8,440 |
| Museums within 10 km | 8 | 17 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 2 | 1 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 24 | 54 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 2 months | 1 month |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Biarritz or Bilbao somewhere new.