VacationSelector
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera

Photos: Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License.

Bilbao or Kyoto?

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
  • nightlife
  • getting around

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

Choose Kyoto for

  • wellness
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Kyoto’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, Kyoto 15: Bilbao leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Bilbao 81, Kyoto 85: Kyoto leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Bilbao 62, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. Bilbao 54, Kyoto 35: Bilbao leads by 19 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bilbao 75, Kyoto 70: Bilbao leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Bilbao 78, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Bilbao 55, Kyoto 68: Kyoto leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Bilbao 79, Kyoto 72: Bilbao leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Bilbao 47, Kyoto 72: Kyoto leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Bilbao 44, Kyoto 50: Kyoto leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bilbao 53, Kyoto 60: Kyoto leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bilbao 33, Kyoto 70: Kyoto leads by 37 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bilbao and Kyoto.

Your match

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

Bilbao
59match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Kyoto
Best match
66match

Wins on wellness and culture and sights 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

Kyoto in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
225 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
BilbaoKyoto

Where the figures come from

Kyoto's sunshine is measured 43 km from the centre, at Osaka.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre). Kyoto: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Kyoto (3.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBilbaoKyoto
Official languageSpanishJapanese
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Yen (JPY)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+9
Emergency number112Police 110, fire 119
Elevation19 m51 m
Main airportBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinationsKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureBilbaoKyoto
City population351,1241,463,723
People per km²8,4401,768
Museums within 10 km1777
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km24
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 month5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bilbao or Kyoto 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. 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.