VacationSelector
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river
Huntington Beach Pier on a summer day, Huntington Beach
Huntington BeachHuntington Beach Pier on a summer day

Photos: Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Huntington Beach by Stephen Leonardi, Pexels License.

Bilbao or Huntington Beach?

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

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

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

Choose Huntington Beach for

  • families
  • beaches
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Huntington Beach’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, Huntington Beach 70: Huntington Beach leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Bilbao 81, Huntington Beach 46: Bilbao leads by 35 points.
Culture & sights. Bilbao 62, Huntington Beach 14: Bilbao leads by 48 points.
Nightlife. Bilbao 54, Huntington Beach 38: Bilbao leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bilbao 75, Huntington Beach 58: Bilbao leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Bilbao 78, Huntington Beach 63: Bilbao leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Bilbao 55, Huntington Beach 82: Huntington Beach leads by 27 points.
Getting around. Bilbao 79, Huntington Beach 20: Bilbao leads by 59 points.
Shopping & style. Bilbao 47, Huntington Beach 42: Bilbao leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Bilbao 44, Huntington Beach 28: Bilbao leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bilbao 53, Huntington Beach 33: Bilbao leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bilbao 33, Huntington Beach 36: Huntington Beach leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bilbao and Huntington Beach.

Your match

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

Bilbao
Best match
59match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

Huntington Beach
44match

Wins on families and beaches 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

Huntington Beach in July

26 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BilbaoHuntington Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre). Huntington Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (12.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBilbaoHuntington Beach
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation19 m12 m
Main airportBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinationsJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)12 km from centre53 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBilbaoHuntington Beach
City population351,124198,711
People per km²8,4402,406
Museums within 10 km173
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 Huntington Beach 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.