Biarritz or Strasbourg?
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 and year-round weather with your weighting.
Wins on places to eat and sights concentration 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 of the trip: 43 beaches within reach, water warm enough for comfortable swimming in late summer, and a small town behind them.
Choose Strasbourg if you want a city you can walk: far more notable places within reach of the centre, about three times the choice of restaurants, and much more protected countryside for days out.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Biarritz leads by 67 points.67
| Biarritz | Strasbourg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 67 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 2 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 43 | 9 |
| Coast distance | 1 km | 398 km |
| Water distance | 1 km | — |
Places to eat. Strasbourg leads by 35 points.35
| Biarritz | Strasbourg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 32 | 67 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 207 | 780 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 13 | 36 |
Museums & heritage. Strasbourg leads by 10 points.10
| Biarritz | Strasbourg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 31 | 41 |
| Museums within 10 km | 16 | 23 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 5 | 14 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 31 | 61 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 2 | 1 |
Nightlife. Strasbourg leads by 21 points.21
| Biarritz | Strasbourg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 15 | 36 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 105 | 305 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 82 | 264 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 78 | 87 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 6 | 17 |
Nature & day trips. Strasbourg leads by 24 points.24
| Biarritz | Strasbourg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 30 | 54 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 6 | 37 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 35 |
| Land share of disc % | 64 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 32 hectares | 71 hectares |
Good for families. Strasbourg leads by 17 points.17
| Biarritz | Strasbourg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 21 | 38 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 2 | 9 |
| Park area within 2 km | 32 hectares | 71 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 1 | 1 |
Sights concentration. Strasbourg leads by 35 points.35
| Biarritz | Strasbourg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 23 | 58 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 15 | 109 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Biarritz and Strasbourg are level on 62.
| Biarritz | Strasbourg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 62 | 62 |
| Price level global | 73.7 | 73.7 |
| Daily budget | €160 | €160 |
Year-round weather. Biarritz leads by 2 points.2
| Biarritz | Strasbourg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 65 | 63 |
| Monthly daytime high | 13.1 °C to 25.8 °C | 5.2 °C to 26.4 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 97 mm to 224 mm | 34 mm to 77 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 3 |
Where they differ
Biarritz is the one with a coast: 43 beaches nearby against Strasbourg's 9, and two months when the sea reaches 21°C or more, where Strasbourg has none.
Strasbourg has about three times as many restaurants near the centre and a much wider range of kitchens, and many times as many notable places within walking distance, so days need less planning. Protected land covers 37% of its surroundings against 6% around Biarritz, with about twice as much park space near the centre.
Where they are alike
Year-round weather is where they land closest. Both top out at 26°C in high summer, both are coolest in January, and annual sunshine is close, 1765 hours against 1723.
They are also not far apart on museums and on family appeal: each has a modest rather than exhaustive museum offering, each has one theme park within reach, and neither is a heritage capital, though Strasbourg's museums sit more tightly around its centre.
Which traveller are you?
Anyone whose trip is built around swimming or surfing should take Biarritz. It is the only one of the two with real beaches, and late summer sea temperatures of 22°C make the water usable without a plan B.
Eating and going out point firmly to Strasbourg: roughly three times as many restaurants near the centre, a much broader range of kitchens, and about three times as many bars and clubs, most of them close in.
Families and walkers are better served in Strasbourg too, with many more attractions near the centre, about twice the park space, and 37% of the surrounding land protected. Each has one theme park within reach.
What the numbers don't tell you
Treat the value comparison as empty. That figure is a national price level, identical for both by construction, so it says nothing about which city costs less; the €160 a day beside it is one nationwide estimate rather than a measurement of Biarritz or Strasbourg.
Biarritz's coastal advantage is narrower than it looks: only two months bring sea warm enough for easy swimming, and the shoulder months that follow are among the wettest, with 166mm in both September and October. Strasbourg's driest months are also its coldest, with highs of 5-7°C in January and February.
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). Strasbourg: 1991-2020 normals, Strasbourg (9.1 km from centre).
Biarritz is best from July to September. August brings highs of 26°C and sea at 22°C, and July is the driest month at 97mm. Winters stay mild at 13-14°C, but November is the wettest at 224mm.
Strasbourg works from June to August, with highs of 24-26°C, though early summer is its wettest stretch at 68-77mm. April is already 17°C on 42mm of rain. January highs near 5°C make winter the weaker half of the year.
Getting there
| Flying from | Biarritz | Strasbourg |
|---|---|---|
| PalmaPMI | 1 h 25 m no fares BIO · 111 km | 2 h 0 m no fares FKB · 33 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 30 m €129-164 BIQ · 3 km | 1 h 15 m no fares STR · 109 km |
| AlicanteALC | 1 h 20 m €81-137 BIO · 111 km | 2 h 15 m €136-156 FKB · 33 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 2 h 0 m €196-210 1 stop BIO · 111 km | 1 h 15 m €213-254 STR · 109 km |
| MunichMUC | 2 h 10 m €203-242 1 stop BIO · 111 km | 55 m no fares STR · 109 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 2 h 0 m no fares BIO · 111 km | 50 m no fares STR · 109 km |
| MadridMAD | 1 h 5 m €76-169 EAS · 23 km | 2 h 5 m no fares BSL · 110 km |
| NiceNCE | 1 h 30 m no fares BIQ · 3 km | 1 h 20 m €81-198 SXB · 10 km |
| MarrakechRAK | 2 h 15 m no fares BIO · 111 km | 3 h 15 m no fares BSL · 110 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 7 h 20 m no fares BIO · 111 km | 8 h 5 m €606-782 1 stop ZRH · 137 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
| Measure | Biarritz | Strasbourg |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | French | French |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CE230 V, 50 Hz | CE230 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 | 132 m |
| Main airport | Biarritz Pays Basque airport (BIQ)3 km from centre24 non-stop destinations | Strasbourg Airport (SXB)10 km from centre42 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 11 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Biarritz | Strasbourg |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 26,206 | 293,771 |
| People per km² | 2,240 | 3,752 |
| Museums within 10 km | 8 | 21 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 2 | 1 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 24 | 87 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 2 months | – |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Biarritz or Strasbourg somewhere new.