VacationSelector
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river
The Assembly Hall on Temple Square, Salt Lake City
Salt Lake CityThe Assembly Hall on Temple Square

Photos: Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Salt Lake City by hakkun, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Bilbao or Salt Lake City?

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
  • food and drink
  • getting around

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

Choose Salt Lake City for

  • families
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Salt Lake City’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, Salt Lake City 12: Bilbao leads by 33 points.
Food & drink. Bilbao 81, Salt Lake City 40: Bilbao leads by 41 points.
Culture & sights. Bilbao 62, Salt Lake City 42: Bilbao leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Bilbao 54, Salt Lake City 30: Bilbao leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bilbao 75, Salt Lake City 90: Salt Lake City leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Bilbao 78, Salt Lake City 34: Bilbao leads by 44 points.
Good for families. Bilbao 55, Salt Lake City 72: Salt Lake City leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Bilbao 79, Salt Lake City 42: Bilbao leads by 37 points.
Shopping & style. Bilbao 47, Salt Lake City 36: Bilbao leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Bilbao 44, Salt Lake City 40: Bilbao leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bilbao 53, Salt Lake City 55: Salt Lake City leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bilbao 33, Salt Lake City 38: Salt Lake City leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bilbao and Salt Lake City.

Your match

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

Bilbao
Best match
59match

Wins on day trips and food and drink with your weighting.

Salt Lake City
44match

Wins on families and nature and the outdoors 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

Salt Lake City in July

34 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BilbaoSalt Lake City

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre). Salt Lake City: 1991-2020 normals, Salt Lake City International Airport (7.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBilbaoSalt Lake City
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation19 m1,288 m
Main airportBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinationsSalt Lake City International Airport (SLC)9 km from centre108 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureBilbaoSalt Lake City
City population351,124199,723
People per km²8,440690
Museums within 10 km1712
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
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 Salt Lake City 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.