VacationSelector
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House

Photos: Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Bilbao or San Jose?

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

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

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

Choose San Jose for

  • families
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on San Jose’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 Jose 30: Bilbao leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Bilbao 81, San Jose 56: Bilbao leads by 25 points.
Culture & sights. Bilbao 62, San Jose 36: Bilbao leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Bilbao 54, San Jose 33: Bilbao leads by 21 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bilbao 75, San Jose 72: Bilbao leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Bilbao and San Jose are level on 78.
Good for families. Bilbao 55, San Jose 65: San Jose leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Bilbao 79, San Jose 30: Bilbao leads by 49 points.
Shopping & style. Bilbao 47, San Jose 48: San Jose leads by 1 points.
Affordability. Bilbao 44, San Jose 20: Bilbao leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bilbao 53, San Jose 38: Bilbao leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bilbao 33, San Jose 30: Bilbao leads by 3 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bilbao and San Jose.

Your match

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

Bilbao
Best match
59match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

San Jose
45match

Wins on families and shopping 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 Jose in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
14 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BilbaoSan Jose

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre). San Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBilbaoSan Jose
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 m25 m
Main airportBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinationsMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBilbaoSan Jose
City population351,1241,013,240
People per km²8,4402,167
Museums within 10 km1719
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 Jose 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.