VacationSelector
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river
Clearwater Beach in evening light, with its hotels and pier, Clearwater
ClearwaterClearwater Beach in evening light, with its hotels and pier

Photos: Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Clearwater by ajay_suresh, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Bilbao or Clearwater?

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
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

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

Choose Clearwater for

  • beaches
  • families
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Clearwater’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, Clearwater 90: Clearwater leads by 45 points.
Food & drink. Bilbao 81, Clearwater 38: Bilbao leads by 43 points.
Culture & sights. Bilbao 62, Clearwater 18: Bilbao leads by 44 points.
Nightlife. Bilbao 54, Clearwater 34: Bilbao leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bilbao 75, Clearwater 55: Bilbao leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Bilbao 78, Clearwater 58: Bilbao leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Bilbao 55, Clearwater 78: Clearwater leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Bilbao 79, Clearwater 28: Bilbao leads by 51 points.
Shopping & style. Bilbao 47, Clearwater 27: Bilbao leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Bilbao 44, Clearwater 35: Bilbao leads by 9 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bilbao 53, Clearwater 36: Bilbao leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bilbao 33, Clearwater 40: Clearwater leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bilbao and Clearwater.

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 culture and sights with your weighting.

Clearwater
45match

Wins on beaches 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

Clearwater in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
188 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
BilbaoClearwater

Where the figures come from

Clearwater 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.

Clearwater's sunshine is measured 26 km from the centre, at Tampa International Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre). Clearwater: 2006-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Saint Petersburg / High Point (12.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBilbaoClearwater
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 m9 m
Main airportBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinationsSt. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport (PIE)13 km from centre60 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBilbaoClearwater
City population351,124117,292
People per km²8,4401,154
Museums within 10 km174
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 month8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bilbao or Clearwater 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.