VacationSelector
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river
Fort Lovrijenac above the sea, Dubrovnik
DubrovnikFort Lovrijenac above the sea

Photos: Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Dubrovnik by Natalia Semenova, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Bilbao or Dubrovnik?

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
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

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

Choose Dubrovnik for

  • beaches
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Dubrovnik’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, Dubrovnik 74: Dubrovnik leads by 29 points.
Food & drink. Bilbao 81, Dubrovnik 47: Bilbao leads by 34 points.
Culture & sights. Bilbao 62, Dubrovnik 72: Dubrovnik leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Bilbao 54, Dubrovnik 37: Bilbao leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bilbao 75, Dubrovnik 70: Bilbao leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Bilbao 78, Dubrovnik 66: Bilbao leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Bilbao 55, Dubrovnik 50: Bilbao leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Bilbao 79, Dubrovnik 60: Bilbao leads by 19 points.
Shopping & style. Bilbao 47, Dubrovnik 25: Bilbao leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Bilbao 44, Dubrovnik 28: Bilbao leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bilbao 53, Dubrovnik 25: Bilbao leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bilbao 33, Dubrovnik 32: Bilbao leads by 1 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bilbao and Dubrovnik.

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 live music and the arts with your weighting.

Dubrovnik
49match

Wins on beaches and culture and sights 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

Dubrovnik in July

29 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
29 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BilbaoDubrovnik

Where the figures come from

Dubrovnik 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.

Dubrovnik's sunshine is measured 83 km from the centre, at Mostar.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre). Dubrovnik: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Dubrovnik / Cilipi (15.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBilbaoDubrovnik
Official languageSpanishCroatian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation19 m10 m
Main airportBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinationsDubrovnik Ruđer Bošković Airport (DBV)16 km from centre76 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureBilbaoDubrovnik
City population351,12441,562
People per km²8,440-
Museums within 10 km177
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km23
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 month5 months

Where else could you go?

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