VacationSelector
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row

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

Bilbao or Charleston?

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

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

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

Choose Charleston for

  • beaches
  • shopping
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Charleston’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, Charleston 72: Charleston leads by 27 points.
Food & drink. Bilbao 81, Charleston 72: Bilbao leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Bilbao 62, Charleston 64: Charleston leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Bilbao 54, Charleston 44: Bilbao leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bilbao 75, Charleston 55: Bilbao leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Bilbao 78, Charleston 62: Bilbao leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Bilbao 55, Charleston 60: Charleston leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Bilbao 79, Charleston 46: Bilbao leads by 33 points.
Shopping & style. Bilbao 47, Charleston 55: Charleston leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Bilbao 44, Charleston 27: Bilbao leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bilbao 53, Charleston 42: Bilbao leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bilbao 33, Charleston 40: Charleston leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bilbao and Charleston.

Your match

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

Bilbao
Best match
59match

Wins on getting around and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Charleston
53match

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

Charleston in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
167 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BilbaoCharleston

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre). Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBilbaoCharleston
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation19 m6 m
Main airportBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinationsCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureBilbaoCharleston
City population351,124150,227
People per km²8,440532
Museums within 10 km1719
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 month6 months

Where else could you go?

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