VacationSelector
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river
A cobbled street of painted houses in the old town, San Miguel de Allende
San Miguel de AllendeA cobbled street of painted houses in the old town

Photos: Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Miguel de Allende by Russ Bowling, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Bilbao or San Miguel de Allende?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

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

Choose San Miguel de Allende for

  • wellness
  • shopping
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on San Miguel de Allende’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 Miguel de Allende 4: Bilbao leads by 41 points.
Food & drink. Bilbao 81, San Miguel de Allende 62: Bilbao leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Bilbao and San Miguel de Allende are level on 62.
Nightlife. Bilbao 54, San Miguel de Allende 38: Bilbao leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bilbao 75, San Miguel de Allende 40: Bilbao leads by 35 points.
Day trips. Bilbao 78, San Miguel de Allende 77: Bilbao leads by 1 points.
Good for families. Bilbao 55, San Miguel de Allende 32: Bilbao leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Bilbao 79, San Miguel de Allende 48: Bilbao leads by 31 points.
Shopping & style. Bilbao 47, San Miguel de Allende 55: San Miguel de Allende leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Bilbao 44, San Miguel de Allende 50: San Miguel de Allende leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bilbao 53, San Miguel de Allende 40: Bilbao leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bilbao 33, San Miguel de Allende 66: San Miguel de Allende leads by 33 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bilbao and San Miguel de Allende.

Your match

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

Bilbao
Best match
59match

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

San Miguel de Allende
48match

Wins on wellness 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 Miguel de Allende in July

29 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
132 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BilbaoSan Miguel de Allende

Where the figures come from

San Miguel de Allende's temperatures are measured 54 km from the centre, at Guanajuato, Gto..

San Miguel de Allende 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre). San Miguel de Allende: 1991-2020 normals, Guanajuato, Gto. (53.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBilbaoSan Miguel de Allende
Official languageSpanishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation19 m1,900 m
Main airportBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinationsGuanajuato International Airport (BJX)77 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureBilbaoSan Miguel de Allende
City population351,12469,811
People per km²8,440-
Museums within 10 km172
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
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 San Miguel de Allende 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.