VacationSelector
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river
Flinders Street Station, Melbourne
MelbourneFlinders Street Station

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

Bilbao or Melbourne?

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

  • day trips
  • prices
  • food and drink

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

Choose Melbourne for

  • shopping
  • nightlife
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Melbourne’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, Melbourne 50: Melbourne leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Bilbao 81, Melbourne 75: Bilbao leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Bilbao 62, Melbourne 57: Bilbao leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Bilbao 54, Melbourne 75: Melbourne leads by 21 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bilbao 75, Melbourne 70: Bilbao leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Bilbao 78, Melbourne 62: Bilbao leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Bilbao 55, Melbourne 73: Melbourne leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Bilbao 79, Melbourne 76: Bilbao leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Bilbao 47, Melbourne 70: Melbourne leads by 23 points.
Affordability. Bilbao 44, Melbourne 31: Bilbao leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bilbao 53, Melbourne 72: Melbourne leads by 19 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bilbao 33, Melbourne 54: Melbourne leads by 21 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bilbao and Melbourne.

Your match

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

Bilbao
59match

Wins on day trips and prices with your weighting.

Melbourne
Best match
64match

Wins on shopping 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

Melbourne in July

14 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BilbaoMelbourne

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre). Melbourne: 1991-2020 normals, Latrobe University / Kingsbury (13.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBilbaoMelbourne
Official languageSpanishEnglish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+10, UTC+11 in summer
Emergency number112000
Elevation19 m31 m
Main airportBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinationsMelbourne Airport (MEL)19 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBilbaoMelbourne
City population351,1245,350,705
People per km²8,440535
Museums within 10 km1743
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
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 Melbourne 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.