VacationSelector

Biarritz or Lyon?

Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.

Your match

Biarritz
38
match

Wins on beaches & swimming and year-round weather with your weighting.

Lyon
✓ Best match
52
match

Wins on places to eat and nightlife 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: it has the beaches, and water that reaches 21°C or more in late summer, in a small coastal town of about 26,200 people.

Choose Lyon if you want a city around you: far more restaurants and a much wider range of kitchens, more museums, more to walk between near the centre, and considerably more laid on for children.

Scoreboard

Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.

BiarritzLyon
Beaches & swimming. Biarritz leads by 67 points.67
BiarritzLyon
Score670
Swim season months20
Beaches 10 km4326
Coast distance1 km253 km
Water distance1 km—
Places to eat. Lyon leads by 47 points.47
BiarritzLyon
Score3279
Restaurants within 2 km of centre2071,691
Effective number of cuisines within 2 km1340
Museums & heritage. Lyon leads by 24 points.24
BiarritzLyon
Score3155
Museums within 10 km1653
Museums within 2 km of centre525
Share of museums within 2 km %3147
Unesco sites within 50 km22
Nightlife. Lyon leads by 43 points.43
BiarritzLyon
Score1558
Drinking venues within 4 km105866
Drinking venues within 2 km of centre82611
Share of drinking venues within 2 km %7871
Nightclubs within 4 km647
Nature & day trips. Lyon leads by 3 points.3
BiarritzLyon
Score3033
Protected land share 50 km %66
Landscape blanket share 50 km %06
Land share of disc %64100
Park area within 2 km32 hectares120 hectares
Good for families. Lyon leads by 38 points.38
BiarritzLyon
Score2159
Tourist attractions within 2 km225
Park area within 2 km32 hectares120 hectares
Theme parks within 30 km12
Sights concentration. Lyon leads by 31 points.31
BiarritzLyon
Score2354
Notable places within 2 km1586
Min wikipedia languages55
Value for money. Biarritz and Lyon are level on 62.
BiarritzLyon
Score6262
Price level global73.773.7
Daily budget€160€160
Year-round weather. Biarritz leads by 1 points.1
BiarritzLyon
Score6564
Monthly daytime high13.1 °C to 25.8 °C7 °C to 28 °C
Monthly rainfall97 mm to 224 mm43 mm to 101 mm
Dry months00
0255075100

Where they differ

Biarritz is the one with a coast: 43 beaches nearby against Lyon's 26, and sea that reaches 21°C or more for two months of the year, which Lyon never manages.

Lyon has many times as many restaurants near the centre and a much wider range of kitchens, many times as many bars and clubs, and about three times as many museums. It also has more for families: about three times as much park space, many more attractions near the centre, and 2 theme parks within reach against 1.

Where they are alike

Weather is where they line up most closely. Both are warmest in summer and coolest in the same winter month, and neither has a month at 40mm of rain or less. Lyon's year swings wider, 7-28°C against Biarritz's 13-26°C, but the shape of the season is the same.

Countryside access is close as well: 6% of the land around each is protected, and each has 2 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach.

Which traveller are you?

If your days are built around swimming, Biarritz is the only one of the two that works: 43 beaches within reach and water at 21-22°C in late summer, which Lyon has no equivalent to.

If the trip is about eating and evenings out, Lyon: many times as many restaurants near the centre, a much wider range of kitchens, and many times as many bars and clubs, most of them central.

Travelling with children, Lyon again: many more attractions near the centre, about three times as much park space, and 2 theme parks within reach against Biarritz's 1, with more to walk between.

What the numbers don't tell you

The value figure is a national price level, identical for both by construction, so the comparison between these two cities carries no information at all. The €160 daily budget beside it is one national estimate rather than a measurement of either city, and neither can be called the cheaper trip on this evidence.

Biarritz's beach advantage is narrower than the count of beaches suggests: the sea only reaches 21°C or more briefly, and rain is heavy in every month, 97mm even at the driest. Lyon's summer highs sit next to a winter of 7-9°C, so its annual weather picture is carried by a few months.

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.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Daytime high, °C
Biarritz
13
14
16
18
21
23
25
26
24
21
16
14
Lyon
7
9
14
17
21
26
28
28
23
18
11
8
Sea temperature, °C
Biarritz
13
12
12
14
16
19
21
22
21
18
16
14
Lyon
No coastline within reach
Rainfall, mm
Biarritz
166
143
127
147
133
106
97
110
146
166
224
179
Lyon
51
43
50
68
82
73
66
68
84
101
88
54
Daylight, hours per day
Biarritz
9
11
12
13
15
15
15
14
13
11
10
9
Lyon
9
10
12
14
15
16
15
14
13
11
10
9
Sunshine, hours per day
Biarritz
3
3
5
5
6
6
7
7
6
4
3
2
Lyon
2
3
6
6
7
9
9
8
6
4
3
2

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). Lyon: 1991-2020 normals, Lyon / Bron (10.6 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Biarritz is at its best from July to September, with highs of 24-26°C and sea at 21-22°C; those are also its driest months, at 97-146mm. Autumn turns heavy, with 224mm in November.

Lyon peaks from June to August at 26-28°C, drier then than Biarritz ever gets, at 66-73mm. Shoulder months hold up, with September at 23°C. Winter is the sharp break, 7-9°C, but it stays the drier of the two, so a winter city break is less sodden there.

Getting there

Flying fromBiarritzLyon
ParisCDG, ORY, BVA
1 h 30 m
€129-164
BIQ · 3 km
1 h 10 m
no fares
LYS · 20 km
LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2
1 h 45 m
€126-289
1 stop
BIQ · 3 km
1 h 35 m
no fares
LYS · 20 km
FrankfurtFRA, HHN
2 h 0 m
no fares
BIO · 111 km
1 h 20 m
€195-211
2 stops
LYS · 20 km
AmsterdamAMS
2 h 0 m
€196-210
1 stop
BIO · 111 km
1 h 30 m
no fares
LYS · 20 km
PalmaPMI
1 h 25 m
no fares
BIO · 111 km
1 h 30 m
no fares
LYS · 20 km
MunichMUC
2 h 10 m
€203-242
1 stop
BIO · 111 km
1 h 20 m
no fares
LYS · 20 km
MadridMAD
1 h 5 m
€76-169
EAS · 23 km
1 h 45 m
no fares
LYS · 20 km
IstanbulIST, SAW
3 h 45 m
€192-214
BIO · 111 km
3 h 0 m
€167-217
LYS · 20 km
MarrakechRAK
2 h 15 m
no fares
BIO · 111 km
2 h 55 m
€105-126
LYS · 20 km
New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA
7 h 20 m
no fares
BIO · 111 km
8 h 0 m
no fares
GVA · 111 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 2026-08 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

MeasureBiarritzLyon
Official languageFrenchFrench
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation0 m160 m
Main airportBiarritz Pays Basque airport (BIQ)3 km from centre24 non-stop destinationsLyon Saint-Exupéry Airport (LYS)20 km from centre139 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBiarritzLyon
City population26,206519,127
People per km²2,24010,838
Museums within 10 km842
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Distinct cuisines in the centre24148
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 Lyon somewhere new.

Browse every destination we have measured

Sources

© OpenStreetMap contributors, data available under the Open Database Licence. Place counts include data from Overture Maps Foundation (CDLA Permissive 2.0), assembled from Meta, Microsoft, Foursquare and other providers. Notable-place counts from Wikidata (CC0), weighted by Wikipedia language editions. Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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. Typical fares from Travelpayouts (Aviasales data). Route-level air passenger statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

Scores follow rubric v2; snapshot generated 2026-08-31. Typical prices can be up to 7 days old. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.