Bilbao or Granada?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Too close to call, 1 point apart
Wins on beaches & swimming and sights concentration with your weighting.
Wins on museums & heritage and nature & day trips with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Bilbao if you want a coast within reach and a sea that reaches 22°C in August, plus a centre where more of the notable places sit within walking distance, and more park space close by.
Choose Granada if you want dry heat, wider countryside to explore with over a quarter of the surrounding land protected, and more attractions clustered near the centre for children.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Bilbao leads by 31 points.31
| Bilbao | Granada | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 31 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 1 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 1 | 0 |
| Coast distance | 0 km | 48 km |
| Water distance | 0 km | — |
Places to eat. Granada leads by 5 points.5
| Bilbao | Granada | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 62 | 67 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 840 | 872 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 26 | 34 |
Museums & heritage. Granada leads by 10 points.10
| Bilbao | Granada | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 38 | 48 |
| Museums within 10 km | 25 | 28 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 12 | 26 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 48 | 93 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 1 | 1 |
Nightlife. Bilbao leads by 6 points.6
| Bilbao | Granada | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 58 | 52 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 869 | 637 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 730 | 494 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 84 | 78 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 50 | 46 |
Nature & day trips. Granada leads by 10 points.10
| Bilbao | Granada | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 53 | 63 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 11 | 27 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 70 | 96 |
| Park area within 2 km | 119 hectares | 46 hectares |
Good for families. Granada leads by 9 points.9
| Bilbao | Granada | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 47 | 56 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 17 | 60 |
| Park area within 2 km | 119 hectares | 46 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 0 | 0 |
Sights concentration. Bilbao leads by 8 points.8
| Bilbao | Granada | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 52 | 44 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 79 | 50 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Bilbao and Granada are level on 71.
| Bilbao | Granada | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 71 | 71 |
| Price level global | 60.8 | 60.8 |
| Daily budget | €122 | €122 |
Year-round weather. Granada leads by 4 points.4
| Bilbao | Granada | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 70 | 74 |
| Monthly daytime high | 13.5 °C to 26.3 °C | 13.1 °C to 34.8 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 53 mm to 170 mm | 0 mm to 51 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 7 |
Where they differ
Bilbao has the sea: one beach nearby and a single month, August, when the water reaches 22°C. Granada has no coast at all. Around the centre, Bilbao also has about three times as much park space, and more of the notable places sit within walking distance.
Granada has the wider country around it: 27% of the surrounding land is protected against 11% around Bilbao. Museum counts are close, but Granada's sit more tightly around the centre, and both cities have one UNESCO-listed place within day-trip reach.
Where they are alike
Both cities are at their coolest in January, with highs of 13-14°C, so winter travel is a question of daylight and rain rather than cold.
Eating and going out look much alike: a similar number of restaurants near the centre in each, and a similar number of nightclubs, most of them close to the middle of town in both. Bilbao has somewhat more places to drink, Granada a somewhat wider range of kitchens.
Which traveller are you?
Anyone whose trip depends on swimming should take Bilbao: it has a beach within reach and August water at 22°C, while Granada is inland with no coast to cool off in.
Families lean towards Granada, with about three times as many attractions near the centre; Bilbao answers with roughly three times the park space. Neither has a theme park within reach, so plan around towns rather than rides.
If your days are spent walking the centre, Bilbao puts about twice as many notable places within reach on foot. If you would rather head out of town, Granada has much more protected land around it.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value figures for these two are the same by construction: they reflect a national price level, not either city, so the comparison carries no information. The daily budget of €122 beside them is a single national estimate rather than a measurement of Bilbao or Granada, so treat it as a rough baseline.
Bilbao's coastal advantage is narrower than it looks: one beach, and only August has sea warm enough for swimming. Granada's driest months are also its hottest, with July at 35°C, so dry does not mean comfortable.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre). Granada: 1991-2020 normals, Granada / Caserío Hospicio (5 km from centre).
Bilbao is at its best from June to September: highs of 24-26°C, its driest months at 53-58mm, and a sea that reaches 22°C in August. November is the wettest month by a distance, and the water is not warm enough for swimming for most of the year.
Granada is best in May, then again in September and October: highs of 24-29°C and rain under 45mm. Midsummer is dry but reaches 35°C, which suits some travellers and not others.
Getting there
| Flying from | Bilbao | Granada |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 45 m €62-91 BIO · 5 km | 2 h 40 m €67-129 AGP · 97 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 1 h 15 m €58-78 BIO · 5 km | 1 h 30 m €92-138 GRX · 16 km |
| MadridMAD | 1 h 0 m no fares BIO · 5 km | 1 h 5 m no fares GRX · 16 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 2 h 0 m €196-210 1 stop BIO · 5 km | 2 h 55 m €146-177 AGP · 97 km |
| BrusselsBRU, CRL | 1 h 50 m €157-160 1 stop BIO · 5 km | 2 h 45 m €110-142 1 stop AGP · 97 km |
| DublinDUB | 2 h 0 m no fares BIO · 5 km | 2 h 50 m €122-139 1 stop AGP · 97 km |
| PalmaPMI | 1 h 25 m no fares BIO · 5 km | 1 h 25 m no fares GRX · 16 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 2 h 0 m no fares BIO · 5 km | 2 h 50 m €124-199 1 stop AGP · 97 km |
| MarrakechRAK | 2 h 15 m no fares BIO · 5 km | 1 h 25 m €58-149 AGP · 97 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 7 h 20 m no fares BIO · 5 km | 7 h 35 m no fares AGP · 97 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Bilbao | Granada |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Spanish | Spanish |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CF230 V, 50 Hz | CF230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 112 |
| Elevation | 19 m | 693 m |
| Main airport | Bilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre70 non-stop destinations | F.G.L. Airport Granada-Jaén Airport (GRX)16 km from centre12 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | 12 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Bilbao | Granada |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 351,124 | 233,975 |
| People per km² | 8,440 | 2,659 |
| Museums within 10 km | 17 | 19 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 1 | 1 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 54 | 62 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 1 month | – |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bilbao or Granada somewhere new.