VacationSelector
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river
The statue of Columbus in Parque Colon before the cathedral, Santo Domingo
Santo DomingoThe statue of Columbus in Parque Colon before the cathedral

Photos: Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Santo Domingo by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Bilbao or Santo Domingo?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • day trips

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

Choose Santo Domingo for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Santo Domingo’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, Santo Domingo 58: Santo Domingo leads by 13 points.
Food & drink. Bilbao 81, Santo Domingo 58: Bilbao leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Bilbao 62, Santo Domingo 64: Santo Domingo leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Bilbao 54, Santo Domingo 66: Santo Domingo leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bilbao 75, Santo Domingo 36: Bilbao leads by 39 points.
Day trips. Bilbao 78, Santo Domingo 44: Bilbao leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Bilbao 55, Santo Domingo 40: Bilbao leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Bilbao 79, Santo Domingo 40: Bilbao leads by 39 points.
Shopping & style. Bilbao 47, Santo Domingo 44: Bilbao leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Bilbao 44, Santo Domingo 66: Santo Domingo leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bilbao 53, Santo Domingo 46: Bilbao leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bilbao 33, Santo Domingo 22: Bilbao leads by 11 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bilbao and Santo Domingo.

Your match

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

Bilbao
Best match
59match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around with your weighting.

Santo Domingo
49match

Wins on prices and beaches 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

Santo Domingo in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
183 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
BilbaoSanto Domingo

Where the figures come from

Santo Domingo 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). Santo Domingo: 1991-2020 normals, Santo Domingo (6.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBilbaoSanto Domingo
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Dominican Peso (DOP)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-4
Emergency number112911
Elevation19 m14 m
Main airportBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinationsLas Américas International Airport (SDQ)28 km from centre40 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBilbaoSanto Domingo
City population351,1242,201,941
People per km²8,4401,691
Museums within 10 km1710
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 month12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bilbao or Santo Domingo 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. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.