VacationSelector
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens

Photos: Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Bilbao or Edinburgh?

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
  • beaches
  • prices

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

Choose Edinburgh for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Edinburgh’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, Edinburgh 22: Bilbao leads by 23 points.
Food & drink. Bilbao 81, Edinburgh 53: Bilbao leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Bilbao 62, Edinburgh 75: Edinburgh leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Bilbao 54, Edinburgh 50: Bilbao leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bilbao and Edinburgh are level on 75.
Day trips. Bilbao 78, Edinburgh 75: Bilbao leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Bilbao 55, Edinburgh 62: Edinburgh leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Bilbao 79, Edinburgh 74: Bilbao leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Bilbao 47, Edinburgh 50: Edinburgh leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Bilbao 44, Edinburgh 30: Bilbao leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bilbao 53, Edinburgh 72: Edinburgh leads by 19 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bilbao 33, Edinburgh 34: Edinburgh leads by 1 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bilbao and Edinburgh.

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 beaches with your weighting.

Edinburgh
56match

Wins on live music and the arts 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

Edinburgh in July

19 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
66 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
14 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BilbaoEdinburgh

Where the figures come from

Edinburgh 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.

Edinburgh's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at Leuchars.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre). Edinburgh: 1991-2020 normals, Edinburgh Airport (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBilbaoEdinburgh
Official languageSpanishEnglish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112 or 999
Elevation19 m47 m
Main airportBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinationsEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureBilbaoEdinburgh
City population351,124488,050
People per km²8,4401,884
Museums within 10 km1732
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km23
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 Edinburgh 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.