VacationSelector
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river
The railway viaduct over the canal, Castlefield, Manchester
ManchesterThe railway viaduct over the canal, Castlefield

Photos: Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Manchester by IIya Kuzhekin, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Bilbao or Manchester?

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
  • food and drink
  • wellness

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

Choose Manchester for

  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Manchester’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, Manchester 9: Bilbao leads by 36 points.
Food & drink. Bilbao 81, Manchester 51: Bilbao leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Bilbao 62, Manchester 50: Bilbao leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Bilbao 54, Manchester 72: Manchester leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bilbao 75, Manchester 64: Bilbao leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Bilbao 78, Manchester 77: Bilbao leads by 1 points.
Good for families. Bilbao 55, Manchester 58: Manchester leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Bilbao 79, Manchester 68: Bilbao leads by 11 points.
Shopping & style. Bilbao 47, Manchester 62: Manchester leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Bilbao 44, Manchester 42: Bilbao leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bilbao 53, Manchester 74: Manchester leads by 21 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bilbao 33, Manchester 15: Bilbao leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bilbao and Manchester.

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 food and drink with your weighting.

Manchester
54match

Wins on live music and the arts and nightlife 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

Manchester in July

21 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
60 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BilbaoManchester

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre). Manchester: 1991-2020 normals, Manchester Airport (14.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBilbaoManchester
Official languageSpanishEnglish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112 or 999
Elevation19 m38 m
Main airportBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinationsManchester Airport (MAN)15 km from centre211 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureBilbaoManchester
City population351,124547,627
People per km²8,4404,737
Museums within 10 km1728
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 monthNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bilbao or Manchester 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.