VacationSelector
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river
Cliff-top hotels above the harbour, Sorrento
SorrentoCliff-top hotels above the harbour

Photos: Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Sorrento by Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Bilbao or Sorrento?

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

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

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

Choose Sorrento for

  • day trips
  • beaches
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Sorrento’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, Sorrento 60: Sorrento leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Bilbao 81, Sorrento 60: Bilbao leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Bilbao 62, Sorrento 32: Bilbao leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Bilbao 54, Sorrento 28: Bilbao leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bilbao 75, Sorrento 80: Sorrento leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Bilbao 78, Sorrento 95: Sorrento leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Bilbao 55, Sorrento 42: Bilbao leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Bilbao 79, Sorrento 58: Bilbao leads by 21 points.
Shopping & style. Bilbao 47, Sorrento 38: Bilbao leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Bilbao 44, Sorrento 32: Bilbao leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bilbao 53, Sorrento 20: Bilbao leads by 33 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bilbao 33, Sorrento 48: Sorrento leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bilbao and Sorrento.

Your match

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

Bilbao
Best match
59match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights with your weighting.

Sorrento
49match

Wins on day trips 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

Sorrento in July

29 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
21 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BilbaoSorrento

Where the figures come from

Sorrento 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.

Sorrento's sunshine is measured 54 km from the centre, at Grazzanise.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre). Sorrento: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Capri (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBilbaoSorrento
Official languageSpanishItalian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation19 m50 m
Main airportBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinationsNaples International Airport (NAP)30 km from centre131 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBilbaoSorrento
City population351,12415,407
People per km²8,4401,541
Museums within 10 km176
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km25
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 month5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bilbao or Sorrento 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.