VacationSelector
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river
The cathedral from Piazza del Duomo, Milan
MilanThe cathedral from Piazza del Duomo

Photos: Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Milan by Jiuguang Wang, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Bilbao or Milan?

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
  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Milan for

  • shopping
  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Milan’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, Milan 20: Bilbao leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Bilbao 81, Milan 78: Bilbao leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Bilbao 62, Milan 78: Milan leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Bilbao 54, Milan 66: Milan leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bilbao 75, Milan 65: Bilbao leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Bilbao 78, Milan 91: Milan leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Bilbao and Milan are level on 55.
Getting around. Bilbao and Milan are level on 79.
Shopping & style. Bilbao 47, Milan 92: Milan leads by 45 points.
Affordability. Bilbao 44, Milan 33: Bilbao leads by 11 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bilbao 53, Milan 82: Milan leads by 29 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bilbao 33, Milan 42: Milan leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bilbao and Milan.

Your match

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

Bilbao
59match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Milan
Best match
65match

Wins on shopping 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

Milan in July

30 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
70 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BilbaoMilan

Where the figures come from

Milan 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.

Milan's sunshine is measured 41 km from the centre, at Novara / Cameri.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre). Milan: 1991-2020 normals, Milano / Linate (8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBilbaoMilan
Official languageSpanishItalian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation19 m138 m
Main airportBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinationsMilan Malpensa International Airport (MXP)40 km from centre208 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBilbaoMilan
City population351,1241,354,196
People per km²8,4407,453
Museums within 10 km1788
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km24
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 Milan 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. 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.