Bilbao or Cardiff?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on value for money and year-round weather with your weighting.
Wins on beaches & swimming and museums & heritage with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Cardiff leads by 15 points.15
| Bilbao | Cardiff | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 31 | 46 |
| Swim season months | 1 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 1 | 8 |
| Coast distance | 0 km | 2 km |
| Water distance | 0 km | 2 km |
Places to eat. Bilbao leads by 2 points.2
| Bilbao | Cardiff | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 62 | 60 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 840 | 541 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 26 | 32 |
Museums & heritage. Cardiff leads by 1 points.1
| Bilbao | Cardiff | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 38 | 39 |
| Museums within 10 km | 25 | 61 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 12 | 6 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 48 | 10 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 1 | 1 |
Nightlife. Bilbao leads by 10 points.10
| Bilbao | Cardiff | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 58 | 48 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 869 | 536 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 730 | 395 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 84 | 74 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 50 | 35 |
Nature & day trips. Bilbao leads by 3 points.3
| Bilbao | Cardiff | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 53 | 50 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 11 | 18 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 15 |
| Land share of disc % | 70 | 68 |
| Park area within 2 km | 119 hectares | 88 hectares |
Good for families. Bilbao leads by 15 points.15
| Bilbao | Cardiff | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 47 | 32 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 17 | 4 |
| Park area within 2 km | 119 hectares | 88 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 0 | 2 |
Sights concentration. Bilbao leads by 7 points.7
| Bilbao | Cardiff | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 52 | 45 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 79 | 51 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Bilbao leads by 17 points.17
| Bilbao | Cardiff | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 71 | 54 |
| Price level global | 60.8 | 84.9 |
| Daily budget | €122 | — |
Year-round weather. Bilbao leads by 16 points.16
| Bilbao | Cardiff | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 70 | 54 |
| Monthly daytime high | 13.5 °C to 26.3 °C | 7.7 °C to 20.2 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 53 mm to 170 mm | 49 mm to 87 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 0 |
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year 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).
Getting there
| Flying from | Bilbao | Cardiff |
|---|---|---|
| MadridMAD | 1 h 0 m no fares BIO · 5 km | 2 h 5 m no fares BRS · 34 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 1 h 15 m €58-78 BIO · 5 km | 2 h 5 m no fares BRS · 34 km |
| PalmaPMI | 1 h 25 m no fares BIO · 5 km | 2 h 20 m no fares BRS · 34 km |
| MalagaAGP | 1 h 35 m €77-114 BIO · 5 km | 2 h 35 m no fares CWL · 15 km |
| Las PalmasLPA | 3 h 5 m no fares BIO · 5 km | 4 h 0 m no fares BRS · 34 km |
| ArrecifeACE | 2 h 50 m no fares BIO · 5 km | 3 h 45 m no fares BRS · 34 km |
| IbizaIBZ | 1 h 25 m no fares BIO · 5 km | 2 h 20 m no fares BRS · 34 km |
| SevillaSVQ | 1 h 30 m no fares BIO · 5 km | 2 h 30 m no fares BRS · 34 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 2 h 0 m €196-210 1 stop BIO · 5 km | 1 h 20 m no fares CWL · 15 km |
| MarrakechRAK | 2 h 15 m no fares BIO · 5 km | 3 h 20 m no fares BRS · 34 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Bilbao | Cardiff |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Spanish | English |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Pound Sterling (GBP) |
| Sockets | CF230 V, 50 Hz | G230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Left |
| Time zone | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer | UTC, UTC+1 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 112 or 999 |
| Elevation | 19 m | 41 m |
| Main airport | Bilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre70 non-stop destinations | Cardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre8 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | 8 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Bilbao | Cardiff |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 351,124 | 383,536 |
| People per km² | 8,440 | 2,734 |
| Museums within 10 km | 17 | 9 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 1 | 1 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 54 | 55 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 1 month | None |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bilbao or Cardiff somewhere new.