VacationSelector
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river
The old railway depot in the snow, Steamboat Springs
Steamboat SpringsThe old railway depot in the snow

Photos: Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Steamboat Springs by Jeffrey Beall, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Bilbao or Steamboat Springs?

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

  • day trips
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Steamboat Springs for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Steamboat Springs’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, Steamboat Springs 7: Bilbao leads by 38 points.
Food & drink. Bilbao 81, Steamboat Springs 30: Bilbao leads by 51 points.
Culture & sights. Bilbao 62, Steamboat Springs 14: Bilbao leads by 48 points.
Nightlife. Bilbao 54, Steamboat Springs 20: Bilbao leads by 34 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bilbao 75, Steamboat Springs 88: Steamboat Springs leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Bilbao 78, Steamboat Springs 12: Bilbao leads by 66 points.
Good for families. Bilbao 55, Steamboat Springs 62: Steamboat Springs leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Bilbao 79, Steamboat Springs 46: Bilbao leads by 33 points.
Shopping & style. Bilbao 47, Steamboat Springs 22: Bilbao leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Bilbao 44, Steamboat Springs 17: Bilbao leads by 27 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bilbao 53, Steamboat Springs 28: Bilbao leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bilbao 33, Steamboat Springs 70: Steamboat Springs leads by 37 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bilbao and Steamboat Springs.

Your match

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

Bilbao
Best match
59match

Wins on day trips and food and drink with your weighting.

Steamboat Springs
35match

Wins on wellness and nature and the outdoors 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

Steamboat Springs in July

28 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
31 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BilbaoSteamboat Springs

Where the figures come from

Steamboat Springs 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). Steamboat Springs: 2011-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Steamboat Springs / Steamboat Ii (5.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBilbaoSteamboat Springs
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation19 m2,052 m
Main airportBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinationsYampa Valley Airport (HDN)33 km from centre17 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureBilbaoSteamboat Springs
City population351,12413,224
People per km²8,440503
Museums within 10 km170
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
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 Steamboat Springs 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.