VacationSelector
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river
Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan, New York
New YorkBrooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan

Photos: Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; New York by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Bilbao or New York?

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

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

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

Choose New York for

  • shopping
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on New York’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, New York 50: New York leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Bilbao 81, New York 92: New York leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Bilbao 62, New York 89: New York leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Bilbao 54, New York 97: New York leads by 43 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bilbao 75, New York 55: Bilbao leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Bilbao 78, New York 68: Bilbao leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Bilbao 55, New York 70: New York leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Bilbao 79, New York 82: New York leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Bilbao 47, New York 97: New York leads by 50 points.
Affordability. Bilbao 44, New York 12: Bilbao leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bilbao 53, New York 99: New York leads by 46 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bilbao 33, New York 42: New York leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bilbao and New York.

Your match

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

Bilbao
59match

Wins on prices and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

New York
Best match
71match

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

New York in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
107 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
22 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BilbaoNew York

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre). New York: 1991-2020 normals, LaGuardia Airport (12.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBilbaoNew York
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation19 m25 m
Main airportBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinationsJohn F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)21 km from centre189 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBilbaoNew York
City population351,1248,804,190
People per km²8,4407,256
Museums within 10 km17157
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 month3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bilbao or New York 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.