VacationSelector
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss

Photos: Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License.

Bilbao or Lucerne?

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

  • food and drink
  • prices
  • nightlife

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

Choose Lucerne for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Lucerne’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, Lucerne 35: Bilbao leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Bilbao 81, Lucerne 35: Bilbao leads by 46 points.
Culture & sights. Bilbao 62, Lucerne 58: Bilbao leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Bilbao 54, Lucerne 28: Bilbao leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bilbao 75, Lucerne 92: Lucerne leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Bilbao and Lucerne are level on 78.
Good for families. Bilbao 55, Lucerne 66: Lucerne leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Bilbao 79, Lucerne 86: Lucerne leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Bilbao 47, Lucerne 46: Bilbao leads by 1 points.
Affordability. Bilbao 44, Lucerne 8: Bilbao leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bilbao 53, Lucerne 66: Lucerne leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bilbao 33, Lucerne 46: Lucerne leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bilbao and Lucerne.

Your match

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

Bilbao
Best match
59match

Wins on food and drink and prices with your weighting.

Lucerne
54match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and live music and the arts 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

Lucerne in July

24 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
141 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BilbaoLucerne

Where the figures come from

Lucerne 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.

Lucerne's sunshine is measured 42 km from the centre, at Zurich Town / Ville..

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre). Lucerne: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Emmen (4.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBilbaoLucerne
Official languageSpanishFrench, German, Italian, Romansh
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Swiss Franc (CHF)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation19 m436 m
Main airportBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinationsZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureBilbaoLucerne
City population351,12486,234
People per km²8,4402,963
Museums within 10 km1714
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 Lucerne 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.