VacationSelector
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river
The Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal, Venice
VeniceThe Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal

Photos: Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Venice by David Vives, Pexels License.

Bilbao or Venice?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife
  • prices

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

Choose Venice for

  • culture and sights
  • beaches
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Venice’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, Venice 56: Venice leads by 11 points.
Food & drink. Bilbao 81, Venice 60: Bilbao leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Bilbao 62, Venice 94: Venice leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Bilbao 54, Venice 27: Bilbao leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bilbao 75, Venice 45: Bilbao leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Bilbao 78, Venice 86: Venice leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Bilbao 55, Venice 45: Bilbao leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Bilbao 79, Venice 68: Bilbao leads by 11 points.
Shopping & style. Bilbao 47, Venice 57: Venice leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Bilbao 44, Venice 20: Bilbao leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bilbao 53, Venice 62: Venice leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bilbao 33, Venice 40: Venice leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bilbao and Venice.

Your match

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

Bilbao
Best match
59match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and nightlife with your weighting.

Venice
55match

Wins on culture and sights and beaches 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

Venice in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
61 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BilbaoVenice

Where the figures come from

Venice 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.

Venice's sunshine is measured 26 km from the centre, at Treviso / S. Angelo.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre). Venice: 1991-2020 normals, Venezia / Tessera (6.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBilbaoVenice
Official languageSpanishItalian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation19 m2 m
Main airportBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinationsVenice Marco Polo Airport (VCE)7 km from centre103 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBilbaoVenice
City population351,124250,369
People per km²8,440602
Museums within 10 km1752
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km25
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 month4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bilbao or Venice 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.