VacationSelector
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river
La Paz

Photos: Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Bilbao or La Paz?

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

  • families
  • beaches
  • day trips

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

Choose La Paz for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on La Paz’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, La Paz 3: Bilbao leads by 42 points.
Food & drink. Bilbao 81, La Paz 50: Bilbao leads by 31 points.
Culture & sights. Bilbao 62, La Paz 52: Bilbao leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Bilbao 54, La Paz 38: Bilbao leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bilbao 75, La Paz 82: La Paz leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Bilbao 78, La Paz 40: Bilbao leads by 38 points.
Good for families. Bilbao 55, La Paz 10: Bilbao leads by 45 points.
Getting around. Bilbao 79, La Paz 45: Bilbao leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. Bilbao 47, La Paz 45: Bilbao leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Bilbao 44, La Paz 92: La Paz leads by 48 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bilbao 53, La Paz 35: Bilbao leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bilbao 33, La Paz 12: Bilbao leads by 21 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bilbao and La Paz.

Your match

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

Bilbao
Best match
59match

Wins on families and beaches with your weighting.

La Paz
42match

Wins on prices and nature and the outdoors 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

La Paz in July

13 °Cdaytime high
-2 °Cnight-time low
16 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BilbaoLa Paz

Where the figures come from

La Paz has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre). La Paz: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureBilbaoLa Paz
Official languageSpanishSpanish, Aymara, Quechua, Guarani
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Boliviano (BOB)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAC50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-4
Emergency number112911
Elevation19 m3,640 m
Main airportBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinationsEl Alto International Airport (LPB)6 km from centre12 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureBilbaoLa Paz
City population351,124755,732
People per km²8,4401,601
Museums within 10 km1721
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 La Paz 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.