VacationSelector
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river
Stortorget in Gamla stan, Stockholm
StockholmStortorget in Gamla stan

Photos: Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Stockholm by Jorge Franganillo, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Bilbao or Stockholm?

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

  • food and drink
  • prices
  • day trips

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

Choose Stockholm for

  • families
  • shopping
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Stockholm’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, Stockholm 40: Bilbao leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Bilbao 81, Stockholm 64: Bilbao leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Bilbao 62, Stockholm 77: Stockholm leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Bilbao 54, Stockholm 57: Stockholm leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bilbao 75, Stockholm 72: Bilbao leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Bilbao 78, Stockholm 68: Bilbao leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Bilbao 55, Stockholm 82: Stockholm leads by 27 points.
Getting around. Bilbao 79, Stockholm 84: Stockholm leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Bilbao 47, Stockholm 70: Stockholm leads by 23 points.
Affordability. Bilbao 44, Stockholm 30: Bilbao leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bilbao 53, Stockholm 65: Stockholm leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bilbao 33, Stockholm 56: Stockholm leads by 23 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bilbao and Stockholm.

Your match

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

Bilbao
59match

Wins on food and drink and prices with your weighting.

Stockholm
Best match
64match

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

Stockholm in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
65 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
18 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BilbaoStockholm

Where the figures come from

Stockholm 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.

Stockholm's sunshine is measured 26 km from the centre, at Stockholm Observatoriet.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre). Stockholm: 2003-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Stockholm Bromma Airport (7.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBilbaoStockholm
Official languageSpanishSwedish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Swedish Krona (SEK)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation19 m22 m
Main airportBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinationsStockholm-Arlanda Airport (ARN)36 km from centre174 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureBilbaoStockholm
City population351,124984,748
People per km²8,4405,260
Museums within 10 km17266
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km23
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 Stockholm 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. 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.