VacationSelector
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river
Rozenhoedkaai and the Belfry, Bruges
BrugesRozenhoedkaai and the Belfry

Photos: Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Bruges by Michielverbeek, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Bilbao or Bruges?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

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

Choose Bruges for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Bruges’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, Bruges 28: Bilbao leads by 17 points.
Food & drink. Bilbao 81, Bruges 56: Bilbao leads by 25 points.
Culture & sights. Bilbao 62, Bruges 75: Bruges leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Bilbao 54, Bruges 27: Bilbao leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bilbao 75, Bruges 40: Bilbao leads by 35 points.
Day trips. Bilbao 78, Bruges 85: Bruges leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Bilbao 55, Bruges 54: Bilbao leads by 1 points.
Getting around. Bilbao 79, Bruges 78: Bilbao leads by 1 points.
Shopping & style. Bilbao 47, Bruges 45: Bilbao leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Bilbao 44, Bruges 36: Bilbao leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bilbao 53, Bruges 40: Bilbao leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bilbao 33, Bruges 40: Bruges leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bilbao and Bruges.

Your match

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

Bilbao
Best match
59match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and nightlife with your weighting.

Bruges
50match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips 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

Bruges in July

21 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
77 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BilbaoBruges

Where the figures come from

Bruges 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.

Bruges's sunshine is measured 37 km from the centre, at Vlissingen.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre). Bruges: 2009-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zeebrugge / Zeemanshaard (15.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBilbaoBruges
Official languageSpanishFrench, German, Dutch
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation19 m2 m
Main airportBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinationsBrussels Airport (BRU)94 km from centre191 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureBilbaoBruges
City population351,124118,509
People per km²8,440840
Museums within 10 km1738
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km23
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 monthNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bilbao or Bruges 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.