VacationSelector
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river
Galway Cathedral from the River Corrib, Galway
GalwayGalway Cathedral from the River Corrib

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

Bilbao or Galway?

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
  • day trips

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

Choose Galway for

  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Galway’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, Galway 28: Bilbao leads by 17 points.
Food & drink. Bilbao 81, Galway 45: Bilbao leads by 36 points.
Culture & sights. Bilbao 62, Galway 33: Bilbao leads by 29 points.
Nightlife. Bilbao 54, Galway 50: Bilbao leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bilbao 75, Galway 78: Galway leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Bilbao 78, Galway 56: Bilbao leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Bilbao 55, Galway 42: Bilbao leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Bilbao 79, Galway 58: Bilbao leads by 21 points.
Shopping & style. Bilbao 47, Galway 38: Bilbao leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Bilbao 44, Galway 28: Bilbao leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bilbao 53, Galway 57: Galway leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bilbao 33, Galway 28: Bilbao leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bilbao and Galway.

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.

Galway
45match

Wins on live music and the arts and nature and the outdoors 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

Galway in July

20 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BilbaoGalway

Where the figures come from

Galway's temperatures are measured 64 km from the centre, at Shannon Airport.

Galway 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre). Galway: 1991-2020 normals, Shannon Airport (64.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBilbaoGalway
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 m25 m
Main airportBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinationsShannon Airport (SNN)64 km from centre39 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBilbaoGalway
City population351,12483,456
People per km²8,4401,563
Museums within 10 km174
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 Galway 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.