VacationSelector
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river
The Old Port and Le Suquet, Cannes
CannesThe Old Port and Le Suquet

Photos: Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Cannes by qwesy qwesy, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Bilbao or Cannes?

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

  • food and drink
  • culture and sights
  • prices

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

Choose Cannes for

  • beaches
  • shopping
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Cannes’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, Cannes 80: Cannes leads by 35 points.
Food & drink. Bilbao 81, Cannes 55: Bilbao leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Bilbao 62, Cannes 38: Bilbao leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Bilbao 54, Cannes 42: Bilbao leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bilbao 75, Cannes 72: Bilbao leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Bilbao 78, Cannes 86: Cannes leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Bilbao 55, Cannes 56: Cannes leads by 1 points.
Getting around. Bilbao 79, Cannes 68: Bilbao leads by 11 points.
Shopping & style. Bilbao 47, Cannes 60: Cannes leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Bilbao 44, Cannes 22: Bilbao leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bilbao 53, Cannes 38: Bilbao leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bilbao 33, Cannes 42: Cannes leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bilbao and Cannes.

Your match

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

Bilbao
Best match
59match

Wins on food and drink and culture and sights with your weighting.

Cannes
55match

Wins on beaches and shopping 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

Cannes in July

29 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BilbaoCannes

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre). Cannes: 2004-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Cannes (5.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBilbaoCannes
Official languageSpanishFrench
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 m0 m
Main airportBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinationsNice-Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE)20 km from centre130 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBilbaoCannes
City population351,12474,350
People per km²8,4403,793
Museums within 10 km1716
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
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 Cannes 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.