VacationSelector
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river
The Opera House from the water, Sydney
SydneyThe Opera House from the water

Photos: Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Sydney by Bernard Spragg, CC0.

Bilbao or Sydney?

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
  • prices
  • food and drink

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

Choose Sydney for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Sydney’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, Sydney 95: Sydney leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Bilbao 81, Sydney 77: Bilbao leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Bilbao 62, Sydney 60: Bilbao leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Bilbao 54, Sydney 60: Sydney leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bilbao 75, Sydney 85: Sydney leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Bilbao 78, Sydney 50: Bilbao leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Bilbao 55, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Bilbao 79, Sydney 75: Bilbao leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Bilbao 47, Sydney 68: Sydney leads by 21 points.
Affordability. Bilbao 44, Sydney 22: Bilbao leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bilbao 53, Sydney 73: Sydney leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bilbao 33, Sydney 55: Sydney leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bilbao and Sydney.

Your match

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

Bilbao
59match

Wins on day trips and prices with your weighting.

Sydney
Best match
66match

Wins on beaches and wellness 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

Sydney in July

18 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
70 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
19 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BilbaoSydney

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre). Sydney: 1991-2020 normals, Sydney Airport (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBilbaoSydney
Official languageSpanishEnglish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+10, UTC+11 in summer
Emergency number112000
Elevation19 m6 m
Main airportBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinationsSydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD)9 km from centre99 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBilbaoSydney
City population351,1245,450,496
People per km²8,440449
Museums within 10 km1738
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 month6 months

Where else could you go?

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