VacationSelector
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river
Colourful shopfronts in the city centre, Cork
CorkColourful shopfronts in the city centre

Photos: Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Cork by Selim Karadayı, Pexels License.

Bilbao or Cork?

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
  • getting around

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

Choose Cork for

Cork does not lead in any category we score.

What lies behind each score is written up on Cork’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, Cork 25: Bilbao leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. Bilbao 81, Cork 58: Bilbao leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Bilbao 62, Cork 40: Bilbao leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Bilbao 54, Cork 40: Bilbao leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bilbao 75, Cork 62: Bilbao leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Bilbao 78, Cork 68: Bilbao leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Bilbao 55, Cork 50: Bilbao leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Bilbao 79, Cork 58: Bilbao leads by 21 points.
Shopping & style. Bilbao 47, Cork 40: Bilbao leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Bilbao 44, Cork 33: Bilbao leads by 11 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bilbao 53, Cork 45: Bilbao leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bilbao 33, Cork 22: Bilbao leads by 11 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bilbao and Cork.

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.

Cork
45match

Has no clear advantage with the weighting you have chosen.

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

Cork in July

19 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
86 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BilbaoCork

Where the figures come from

Cork's station stands 153 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre). Cork: 1991-2020 normals, Cork Airport (5.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBilbaoCork
Official languageSpanishEnglish, Irish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation19 m0 m
Main airportBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinationsCork International Airport (ORK)7 km from centre47 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBilbaoCork
City population351,124222,333
People per km²8,4405,961
Museums within 10 km175
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
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 Cork 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.