VacationSelector
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge

Photos: Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License.

Bilbao or San Francisco?

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
  • beaches
  • getting around

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

Choose San Francisco for

  • live music and the arts
  • families
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on San Francisco’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, San Francisco 25: Bilbao leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. Bilbao 81, San Francisco 82: San Francisco leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Bilbao 62, San Francisco 68: San Francisco leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Bilbao 54, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bilbao 75, San Francisco 80: San Francisco leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Bilbao 78, San Francisco 72: Bilbao leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Bilbao 55, San Francisco 66: San Francisco leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Bilbao 79, San Francisco 70: Bilbao leads by 9 points.
Shopping & style. Bilbao 47, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Bilbao 44, San Francisco 14: Bilbao leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bilbao 53, San Francisco 76: San Francisco leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bilbao 33, San Francisco 42: San Francisco leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bilbao and San Francisco.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Bilbao
59match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

San Francisco
59match

Wins on live music and the arts and families 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

San Francisco in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BilbaoSan Francisco

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre). San Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBilbaoSan Francisco
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation19 m16 m
Main airportBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinationsSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBilbaoSan Francisco
City population351,124873,965
People per km²8,4401,455
Museums within 10 km1751
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
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 San Francisco 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.