VacationSelector
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river
The Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires
Buenos AiresThe Teatro Colón

Photos: Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Buenos Aires by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Bilbao or Buenos Aires?

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

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

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

Choose Buenos Aires for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Buenos Aires’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, Buenos Aires 7: Bilbao leads by 38 points.
Food & drink. Bilbao 81, Buenos Aires 75: Bilbao leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Bilbao 62, Buenos Aires 71: Buenos Aires leads by 9 points.
Nightlife. Bilbao 54, Buenos Aires 95: Buenos Aires leads by 41 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bilbao 75, Buenos Aires 38: Bilbao leads by 37 points.
Day trips. Bilbao 78, Buenos Aires 60: Bilbao leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Bilbao 55, Buenos Aires 52: Bilbao leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Bilbao 79, Buenos Aires 62: Bilbao leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Bilbao 47, Buenos Aires 60: Buenos Aires leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Bilbao 44, Buenos Aires 55: Buenos Aires leads by 11 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bilbao 53, Buenos Aires 75: Buenos Aires leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bilbao 33, Buenos Aires 28: Bilbao leads by 5 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bilbao and Buenos Aires.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Bilbao
59match

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

Buenos Aires
57match

Wins on nightlife and live music and the arts 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

Buenos Aires in July

15 °Cdaytime high
8 °Cnight-time low
50 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
13 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BilbaoBuenos Aires

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre). Buenos Aires: 1991-2020 normals, Aeroparque Bs. As. Aerodrome (4.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBilbaoBuenos Aires
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Argentine Peso (ARS)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-3
Emergency number112117 or 911
Elevation19 m25 m
Main airportBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinationsEzeiza International Airport - Ministro Pistarini (EZE)28 km from centre48 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureBilbaoBuenos Aires
City population351,1243,121,707
People per km²8,44015,355
Museums within 10 km1776
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 month4 months

Where else could you go?

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