VacationSelector
The Hôtel du Palais, Biarritz
BiarritzThe Hôtel du Palais
The blue gate of Bab Bou Jeloud, Fes
FesThe blue gate of Bab Bou Jeloud

Photos: Biarritz by Lilipiapia, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Fes by Ideophagous, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Biarritz or Fes?

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 Biarritz for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nightlife

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

Choose Fes for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Fes’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. Biarritz 68, Fes 5: Biarritz leads by 63 points.
Food & drink. Biarritz and Fes are level on 62.
Culture & sights. Biarritz 33, Fes 80: Fes leads by 47 points.
Nightlife. Biarritz 36, Fes 12: Biarritz leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Biarritz 74, Fes 52: Biarritz leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Biarritz 80, Fes 62: Biarritz leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Biarritz 62, Fes 22: Biarritz leads by 40 points.
Getting around. Biarritz 58, Fes 40: Biarritz leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Biarritz 42, Fes 68: Fes leads by 26 points.
Affordability. Biarritz 30, Fes 80: Fes leads by 50 points.
Live music & performing arts. Biarritz 38, Fes 32: Biarritz leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Biarritz 64, Fes 70: Fes leads by 6 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Biarritz and Fes.

Your match

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

Biarritz
Best match
54match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Fes
49match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Biarritz in July

24 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
97 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Fes in July

36 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
BiarritzFes

Where the figures come from

Fes's station stands 171 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Fes 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.

Fes's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at Meknes.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Biarritz: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Biarritz (2.5 km from centre). Fes: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Fes-Sais (12.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBiarritzFes
Official languageFrenchArabic, Standard Moroccan Tamazight
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Moroccan Dirham (MAD)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzCE50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1
Emergency number112Police 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15
Elevation0 m408 m
Main airportBiarritz Pays Basque airport (BIQ)3 km from centre25 non-stop destinationsFes Saïss International Airport (FEZ)13 km from centre35 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBiarritzFes
City population26,2061,167,842
People per km²2,2403,650
Museums within 10 km82
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Biarritz or Fes 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). 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. 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.