VacationSelector
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river
The Elbphilharmonie from the water, Hamburg
HamburgThe Elbphilharmonie from the water

Photos: Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Hamburg by Wolfgang Weiser, Pexels License.

Bilbao or Hamburg?

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
  • beaches

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

Choose Hamburg for

  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Hamburg’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, Hamburg 28: Bilbao leads by 17 points.
Food & drink. Bilbao 81, Hamburg 55: Bilbao leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Bilbao and Hamburg are level on 62.
Nightlife. Bilbao 54, Hamburg 76: Hamburg leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bilbao 75, Hamburg 52: Bilbao leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Bilbao 78, Hamburg 70: Bilbao leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Bilbao 55, Hamburg 74: Hamburg leads by 19 points.
Getting around. Bilbao 79, Hamburg 80: Hamburg leads by 1 points.
Shopping & style. Bilbao 47, Hamburg 65: Hamburg leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Bilbao 44, Hamburg 38: Bilbao leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bilbao 53, Hamburg 80: Hamburg leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bilbao 33, Hamburg 44: Hamburg leads by 11 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bilbao and Hamburg.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Bilbao
59match

Wins on food and drink and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Hamburg
60match

Wins on live music and the arts and nightlife 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

Hamburg in July

23 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
82 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BilbaoHamburg

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre). Hamburg: 1991-2020 normals, Hamburg Airport (9.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBilbaoHamburg
Official languageSpanishGerman
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation19 m6 m
Main airportBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinationsHamburg Helmut Schmidt Airport (HAM)9 km from centre120 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureBilbaoHamburg
City population351,1241,869,473
People per km²8,4402,476
Museums within 10 km1777
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 month-

Where else could you go?

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