VacationSelector
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river
Cardiff Castle, Cardiff
CardiffCardiff Castle

Photos: Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Cardiff by Tevfik Teker, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Bilbao or Cardiff?

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
  • beaches
  • getting around

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

Choose Cardiff for

  • live music and the arts
  • families
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Cardiff’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, Cardiff 30: Bilbao leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Bilbao 81, Cardiff 45: Bilbao leads by 36 points.
Culture & sights. Bilbao 62, Cardiff 58: Bilbao leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Bilbao 54, Cardiff 50: Bilbao leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bilbao 75, Cardiff 70: Bilbao leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Bilbao 78, Cardiff 72: Bilbao leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Bilbao 55, Cardiff 58: Cardiff leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Bilbao 79, Cardiff 66: Bilbao leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Bilbao 47, Cardiff 50: Cardiff leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Bilbao 44, Cardiff 46: Cardiff leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bilbao 53, Cardiff 57: Cardiff leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bilbao 33, Cardiff 27: Bilbao leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bilbao and Cardiff.

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 beaches with your weighting.

Cardiff
52match

Wins on live music and the arts and families 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

Cardiff in July

20 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
83 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
17 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BilbaoCardiff

Where the figures come from

Cardiff 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.

Cardiff's sunshine is measured 83 km from the centre, at Lyneham.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre). Cardiff: 1991-2020 normals, Cardiff-Wales Airport (14.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBilbaoCardiff
Official languageSpanishEnglish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112 or 999
Elevation19 m41 m
Main airportBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinationsCardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureBilbaoCardiff
City population351,124383,536
People per km²8,4402,734
Museums within 10 km179
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
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 Cardiff 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.