Bilbao or Valencia?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on good for families with your weighting.
Wins on beaches & swimming and museums & heritage with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Bilbao if you want the sea at the city edge without planning a trip around swimming, and prefer a compact place with more attractions near the centre and a milder summer.
Choose Valencia if swimming is the point: 12 beaches, warm water for months rather than weeks, and about twice as many restaurants, museums and bars near the centre, in a drier year.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Valencia leads by 36 points.36
| Bilbao | Valencia | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 31 | 67 |
| Swim season months | 1 | 5 |
| Beaches 10 km | 1 | 12 |
| Coast distance | 0 km | 3 km |
| Water distance | 0 km | 3 km |
Places to eat. Valencia leads by 16 points.16
| Bilbao | Valencia | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 62 | 78 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 840 | 1,995 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 26 | 33 |
Museums & heritage. Valencia leads by 17 points.17
| Bilbao | Valencia | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 38 | 55 |
| Museums within 10 km | 25 | 59 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 12 | 26 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 48 | 44 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 1 | 2 |
Nightlife. Valencia leads by 12 points.12
| Bilbao | Valencia | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 58 | 70 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 869 | 1,513 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 730 | 957 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 84 | 63 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 50 | 108 |
Nature & day trips. Bilbao and Valencia are level on 53.
| Bilbao | Valencia | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 53 | 53 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 11 | 10 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 70 | 64 |
| Park area within 2 km | 119 hectares | 119 hectares |
Good for families. Bilbao leads by 5 points.5
| Bilbao | Valencia | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 47 | 42 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 17 | 12 |
| Park area within 2 km | 119 hectares | 119 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 0 | 0 |
Sights concentration. Bilbao and Valencia are level on 52.
| Bilbao | Valencia | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 52 | 52 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 79 | 78 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Bilbao and Valencia are level on 71.
| Bilbao | Valencia | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 71 | 71 |
| Price level global | 60.8 | 60.8 |
| Daily budget | €122 | €122 |
Year-round weather. Valencia leads by 14 points.14
| Bilbao | Valencia | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 70 | 84 |
| Monthly daytime high | 13.5 °C to 26.3 °C | 16.8 °C to 30.6 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 53 mm to 170 mm | 7 mm to 70 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 8 |
Where they differ
Bilbao puts the water at the city itself, 0km from the centre, but that comes to one beach. Its edge is on the ground: somewhat more tourist attractions near the centre and a marginally larger share of protected land around it.
Valencia has 12 beaches, the shore 3km out, and five months when the sea sits at 21°C or more. It also has about twice as many restaurants, museums, bars and clubs near the centre, a wider spread of kitchens, and 2 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Bilbao's 1.
Where they are alike
On nature and day trips the two land in the same place. The share of protected land around each is close, 11% for Bilbao and 10% for Valencia, and both have a comparable amount of park space near the centre.
They match on walkability too: each centre has a similar number of notable places within walking distance. Families find much the same in both, with neither city having a theme park within reach.
Which traveller are you?
If you are going to swim, Valencia is the answer: 12 beaches within reach, the sea at 26°C in August and five months warm enough to be in it, against a single beach in Bilbao.
Anyone building a trip around eating out and late evenings should also take Valencia, which has roughly twice as many restaurants, bars and clubs near the centre as Bilbao, and a wider spread of kitchens.
Travellers with children, or anyone who prefers a milder summer, will get more from Bilbao: more attractions near the centre, a slightly greater share of protected land, and daytime highs that stay below 26°C.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value comparison between these two carries no information. Both are given the same national price level, and the €122 a day beside it is one national estimate rather than a measurement of either city, so nothing here shows one to be the cheaper trip.
Valencia's beach strength is a summer figure. The warmest water and the fullest beaches arrive together in August, and the beaches sit 3km from the centre rather than at it. Its autumn stays warm but brings the year's wettest month, at 70mm. Bilbao's driest summer months are still wetter than most of Valencia's year.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre). Valencia: 1991-2020 normals, Valencia (1.6 km from centre).
July and August are Bilbao's window: highs of 25-26°C, the sea near 22°C, and the driest stretch of its year at about 53mm. Outside summer it is a wet city, and late autumn is heavier still.
Valencia's season is longer. May and June give 24-28°C with little rain, and July is drier still at 7mm. August is hotter, at 31°C, while autumn stays warm but wetter, so the shoulder months are the easier choice.
Getting there
| Flying from | Bilbao | Valencia |
|---|---|---|
| MadridMAD | 1 h 0 m no fares BIO · 5 km | 1 h 0 m €69-81 VLC · 9 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 45 m €62-91 BIO · 5 km | 2 h 15 m €80-167 VLC · 9 km |
| PalmaPMI | 1 h 25 m no fares BIO · 5 km | 1 h 0 m €32-53 VLC · 9 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 1 h 15 m €58-78 BIO · 5 km | 1 h 10 m €62-93 ALC · 133 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 35 m €102 BIO · 5 km | 1 h 55 m €103-131 VLC · 9 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 2 h 0 m €196-210 1 stop BIO · 5 km | 2 h 25 m €155-178 VLC · 9 km |
| SevillaSVQ | 1 h 30 m no fares BIO · 5 km | 1 h 15 m no fares VLC · 9 km |
| MalagaAGP | 1 h 35 m €77-114 BIO · 5 km | 1 h 15 m €46-48 VLC · 9 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 2 h 0 m no fares BIO · 5 km | 2 h 15 m €128-199 1 stop VLC · 9 km |
| MarrakechRAK | 2 h 15 m no fares BIO · 5 km | 2 h 0 m €72-115 VLC · 9 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Bilbao | Valencia |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Spanish | Spanish |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CF230 V, 50 Hz | CF230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 112 |
| Elevation | 19 m | 15 m |
| Main airport | Bilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre70 non-stop destinations | Valencia Airport (VLC)9 km from centre107 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | 13 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Bilbao | Valencia |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 351,124 | 840,792 |
| People per km² | 8,440 | 6,242 |
| Museums within 10 km | 17 | 46 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 1 | 2 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 54 | 92 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 1 month | 5 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bilbao or Valencia somewhere new.