VacationSelector
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river
The skyline reflected in the water, The Hague
The HagueThe skyline reflected in the water

Photos: Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; The Hague by Bráulio jardim, Pexels License.

Bilbao or The Hague?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

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

Choose The Hague for

  • families
  • wellness
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on The Hague’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, The Hague 38: Bilbao leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Bilbao 81, The Hague 48: Bilbao leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. Bilbao 62, The Hague 66: The Hague leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Bilbao 54, The Hague 38: Bilbao leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bilbao 75, The Hague 52: Bilbao leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Bilbao 78, The Hague 86: The Hague leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Bilbao 55, The Hague 72: The Hague leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Bilbao 79, The Hague 78: Bilbao leads by 1 points.
Shopping & style. Bilbao 47, The Hague 55: The Hague leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Bilbao 44, The Hague 35: Bilbao leads by 9 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bilbao 53, The Hague 58: The Hague leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bilbao 33, The Hague 45: The Hague leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bilbao and The Hague.

Your match

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

Bilbao
Best match
59match

Wins on food and drink and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

The Hague
56match

Wins on families 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

The Hague in July

21 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
78 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BilbaoThe Hague

Where the figures come from

The Hague 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.

The Hague's sunshine is measured 60 km from the centre, at De Bilt.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre). The Hague: 1991-2020 normals, Valkenburg (13.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBilbaoThe Hague
Official languageSpanishDutch
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation19 m1 m
Main airportBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinationsRotterdam The Hague Airport (RTM)16 km from centre53 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBilbaoThe Hague
City population351,124548,320
People per km²8,4405,589
Museums within 10 km1754
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km24
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 The Hague 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.