VacationSelector
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river
Bodrum Castle and gulets in the harbour, Bodrum
BodrumBodrum Castle and gulets in the harbour

Photos: Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Bodrum by Serhio Magpie, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Bilbao or Bodrum?

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 Bilbao for

  • getting around
  • food and drink
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Bodrum for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Bodrum’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. Bilbao 45, Bodrum 80: Bodrum leads by 35 points.
Food & drink. Bilbao 81, Bodrum 60: Bilbao leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Bilbao 62, Bodrum 45: Bilbao leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Bilbao 54, Bodrum 65: Bodrum leads by 11 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bilbao 75, Bodrum 60: Bilbao leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Bilbao 78, Bodrum 72: Bilbao leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Bilbao 55, Bodrum 66: Bodrum leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Bilbao 79, Bodrum 42: Bilbao leads by 37 points.
Shopping & style. Bilbao 47, Bodrum 45: Bilbao leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Bilbao 44, Bodrum 38: Bilbao leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bilbao 53, Bodrum 32: Bilbao leads by 21 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bilbao 33, Bodrum 52: Bodrum leads by 19 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bilbao and Bodrum.

Your match

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

Bilbao
Best match
59match

Wins on getting around and food and drink with your weighting.

Bodrum
55match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Bodrum in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
2 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
24 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BilbaoBodrum

Where the figures come from

Bodrum's temperatures are measured 43 km from the centre, at Kos Airport.

Bodrum 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre). Bodrum: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Kos Airport (42.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBilbaoBodrum
Official languageSpanishTurkish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Turkish Lira (TRY)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+3
Emergency number112112
Elevation19 m10 m
Main airportBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinationsMilas Bodrum International Airport (BJV)32 km from centre83 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureBilbaoBodrum
City population351,124175,000
People per km²8,440314
Museums within 10 km174
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 month5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bilbao or Bodrum 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.