VacationSelector
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river
Surfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach, Gold Coast
Gold CoastSurfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach

Photos: Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Gold Coast by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Bilbao or Gold Coast?

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

  • culture and sights
  • food and drink
  • getting around

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

Choose Gold Coast for

  • beaches
  • families
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Gold Coast’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, Gold Coast 92: Gold Coast leads by 47 points.
Food & drink. Bilbao 81, Gold Coast 47: Bilbao leads by 34 points.
Culture & sights. Bilbao 62, Gold Coast 15: Bilbao leads by 47 points.
Nightlife. Bilbao 54, Gold Coast 55: Gold Coast leads by 1 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bilbao 75, Gold Coast 82: Gold Coast leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Bilbao 78, Gold Coast 52: Bilbao leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Bilbao 55, Gold Coast 89: Gold Coast leads by 34 points.
Getting around. Bilbao 79, Gold Coast 45: Bilbao leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. Bilbao 47, Gold Coast 40: Bilbao leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Bilbao 44, Gold Coast 35: Bilbao leads by 9 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bilbao 53, Gold Coast 30: Bilbao leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bilbao 33, Gold Coast 42: Gold Coast leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bilbao and Gold Coast.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Bilbao
Best match
59match

Wins on culture and sights and food and drink with your weighting.

Gold Coast
52match

Wins on beaches 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

Gold Coast in July

22 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
59 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
BilbaoGold Coast

Where the figures come from

Gold Coast's sunshine is measured 75 km from the centre, at Brisbane Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre). Gold Coast: 1991-2020 normals, Gold Coast Seaway (13 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBilbaoGold Coast
Official languageSpanishEnglish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+10
Emergency number112000
Elevation19 m12 m
Main airportBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinationsGold Coast Airport (OOL)20 km from centre19 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBilbaoGold Coast
City population351,124607,665
People per km²8,440433
Museums within 10 km172
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 month12 months

Where else could you go?

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