VacationSelector
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river
The Outback, with the Tenmile Range in the distance, Keystone
KeystoneThe Outback, with the Tenmile Range in the distance

Photos: Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Keystone by Rudi Riet, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Bilbao or Keystone?

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
  • nightlife

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

Choose Keystone for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Keystone’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, Keystone 5: Bilbao leads by 40 points.
Food & drink. Bilbao 81, Keystone 27: Bilbao leads by 54 points.
Culture & sights. Bilbao 62, Keystone 7: Bilbao leads by 55 points.
Nightlife. Bilbao 54, Keystone 12: Bilbao leads by 42 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bilbao 75, Keystone 93: Keystone leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Bilbao 78, Keystone 55: Bilbao leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Bilbao 55, Keystone 66: Keystone leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Bilbao 79, Keystone 50: Bilbao leads by 29 points.
Shopping & style. Bilbao 47, Keystone 22: Bilbao leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Bilbao 44, Keystone 12: Bilbao leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bilbao 53, Keystone 22: Bilbao leads by 31 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bilbao 33, Keystone 32: Bilbao leads by 1 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bilbao and Keystone.

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.

Keystone
34match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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

Keystone in July

21 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
39 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BilbaoKeystone

Where the figures come from

Keystone's temperatures are measured 51 km from the centre, at Leadville / Stringtown.

Keystone's station stands 232 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Keystone 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre). Keystone: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Leadville / Stringtown (50.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBilbaoKeystone
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation19 m2,796 m
Main airportBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinationsDenver International Airport (DEN)116 km from centre231 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureBilbaoKeystone
City population351,1241,369
People per km²8,44013
Museums within 10 km170
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
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 Keystone 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.