VacationSelector
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river
The Petronas Twin Towers from KLCC Park, Kuala Lumpur
Kuala LumpurThe Petronas Twin Towers from KLCC Park

Photos: Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Kuala Lumpur by Brownc, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Bilbao or Kuala Lumpur?

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

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

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

Choose Kuala Lumpur for

  • prices
  • shopping
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Kuala Lumpur’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, Kuala Lumpur 12: Bilbao leads by 33 points.
Food & drink. Bilbao 81, Kuala Lumpur 82: Kuala Lumpur leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Bilbao 62, Kuala Lumpur 57: Bilbao leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Bilbao and Kuala Lumpur are level on 54.
Nature & outdoors. Bilbao 75, Kuala Lumpur 47: Bilbao leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Bilbao 78, Kuala Lumpur 52: Bilbao leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Bilbao 55, Kuala Lumpur 64: Kuala Lumpur leads by 9 points.
Getting around. Bilbao 79, Kuala Lumpur 57: Bilbao leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Bilbao 47, Kuala Lumpur 66: Kuala Lumpur leads by 19 points.
Affordability. Bilbao 44, Kuala Lumpur 75: Kuala Lumpur leads by 31 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bilbao 53, Kuala Lumpur 42: Bilbao leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bilbao 33, Kuala Lumpur 44: Kuala Lumpur leads by 11 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bilbao and Kuala Lumpur.

Your match

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

Bilbao
Best match
59match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Kuala Lumpur
54match

Wins on prices and shopping 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

Kuala Lumpur in July

33 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
139 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
30 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
BilbaoKuala Lumpur

Where the figures come from

Kuala Lumpur's temperatures are measured 46 km from the centre, at Sepang/KL International Airport.

Kuala Lumpur 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). Kuala Lumpur: 1991-2020 normals, Sepang/KL International Airport (46.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBilbaoKuala Lumpur
Official languageSpanishMalay
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Malaysian Ringgit (MYR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number112999
Elevation19 m50 m
Main airportBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinationsKuala Lumpur International Airport (KUL)45 km from centre146 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureBilbaoKuala Lumpur
City population351,1249,000,280
People per km²8,44036,932
Museums within 10 km1725
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 Kuala Lumpur 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.