VacationSelector
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river
A galleon on the Motława below the old crane, Gdansk
GdanskA galleon on the Motława below the old crane

Photos: Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Gdansk by Nikater, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Bilbao or Gdansk?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

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

Choose Gdansk for

  • prices
  • families
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Gdansk’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, Gdansk 40: Bilbao leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Bilbao 81, Gdansk 50: Bilbao leads by 31 points.
Culture & sights. Bilbao 62, Gdansk 68: Gdansk leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Bilbao 54, Gdansk 52: Bilbao leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bilbao 75, Gdansk 58: Bilbao leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Bilbao 78, Gdansk 62: Bilbao leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Bilbao 55, Gdansk 62: Gdansk leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Bilbao 79, Gdansk 72: Bilbao leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Bilbao 47, Gdansk 42: Bilbao leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Bilbao 44, Gdansk 68: Gdansk leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bilbao 53, Gdansk 52: Bilbao leads by 1 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bilbao 33, Gdansk 36: Gdansk leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bilbao and Gdansk.

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 nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Gdansk
55match

Wins on prices 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

Gdansk in July

22 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
85 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BilbaoGdansk

Where the figures come from

Gdansk 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.

Gdansk's sunshine is measured 55 km from the centre, at Elblag.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre). Gdansk: 1991-2020 normals, Gdansk-Rebiechowo (12.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBilbaoGdansk
Official languageSpanishPolish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Zloty (PLN)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCE50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation19 m11 m
Main airportBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinationsGdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport (GDN)13 km from centre72 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureBilbaoGdansk
City population351,124487,834
People per km²8,440714
Museums within 10 km1734
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
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 Gdansk 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.