VacationSelector
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river
The beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier, Virginia Beach
Virginia BeachThe beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier

Photos: Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Virginia Beach by SchuminWeb, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Bilbao or Virginia Beach?

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

  • getting around
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Virginia Beach for

  • beaches
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Virginia Beach’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, Virginia Beach 77: Virginia Beach leads by 32 points.
Food & drink. Bilbao 81, Virginia Beach 42: Bilbao leads by 39 points.
Culture & sights. Bilbao 62, Virginia Beach 30: Bilbao leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Bilbao 54, Virginia Beach 37: Bilbao leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bilbao 75, Virginia Beach 56: Bilbao leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Bilbao 78, Virginia Beach 64: Bilbao leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Bilbao 55, Virginia Beach 75: Virginia Beach leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Bilbao 79, Virginia Beach 27: Bilbao leads by 52 points.
Shopping & style. Bilbao 47, Virginia Beach 32: Bilbao leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Bilbao 44, Virginia Beach 40: Bilbao leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bilbao 53, Virginia Beach 38: Bilbao leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bilbao 33, Virginia Beach 32: Bilbao leads by 1 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bilbao and Virginia Beach.

Your match

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

Bilbao
Best match
59match

Wins on getting around and food and drink with your weighting.

Virginia Beach
46match

Wins on beaches and families 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

Virginia Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
152 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BilbaoVirginia Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre). Virginia Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Virginia Beach / Gatewood Park (5.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBilbaoVirginia Beach
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation19 m7 m
Main airportBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinationsNorfolk International Airport (ORF)20 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBilbaoVirginia Beach
City population351,124459,470
People per km²8,440-
Museums within 10 km172
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
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 Virginia Beach 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.