VacationSelector

Cairo or San Sebastian?

Two destinations compared in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.

The pyramids of Giza, Cairo
Cairo

Photo: Ricardo Liberato, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped

La Concha beach and Monte Urgull, San Sebastian
San Sebastian

Photo: Guérin Nicolas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped

Your match

Cairo
50
match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

San Sebastian
✓ Best match
60
match

Wins on beaches and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.

Scoreboard

Our verdict on each category, scored 0 to 100 against fixed benchmark cities.

CairoSan Sebastian
Beaches & swimming. San Sebastian leads by 58 points.58
Food & drink. San Sebastian leads by 28 points.28
Culture & sights. Cairo leads by 44 points.44
Nightlife. Cairo leads by 4 points.4
Nature & outdoors. San Sebastian leads by 42 points.42
Day trips. San Sebastian leads by 14 points.14
Good for families. San Sebastian leads by 34 points.34
Getting around. San Sebastian leads by 45 points.45
Shopping & style. Cairo leads by 18 points.18
Affordability. Cairo leads by 63 points.63
Live music & performing arts. Cairo leads by 5 points.5
Wellness & relaxation. San Sebastian leads by 35 points.35
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cairo and San Sebastian.

When should you go?

Pick the month you can travel and see both cities side by side. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Climate figures for July
JulyCairoSan Sebastian
Daytime high36 °C22 °C
Night-time low23 °C16 °C
Rainfall in the month0 mm92 mm
Sunshine12 hours a day7 hours a day
Sea temperatureNo sea21 °C
Daylight14 hours a day15 hours a day

The whole year

Each row is shaded against that destination’s own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that figure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Daytime high, °C
Cairo
19
21
24
29
33
35
36
36
34
30
26
21
San Sebastian
11
12
14
15
18
20
22
23
21
19
14
12
Sea temperature, °C
Cairo
No coastline within reach
San Sebastian
13
12
13
14
16
19
21
22
21
18
16
14
Rainfall, mm
Cairo
6
5
10
1
1
0
0
0
0
1
1
7
San Sebastian
151
125
119
126
122
96
92
109
117
155
203
153
Daylight, hours per day
Cairo
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
13
12
12
11
10
San Sebastian
9
11
12
13
15
15
15
14
13
11
10
9
Sunshine, hours per day
Cairo
7
7
9
9
11
11
12
11
10
10
9
7
San Sebastian
3
4
5
5
7
6
7
6
6
5
3
3

Where the figures come from

San Sebastian's station stands 252 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cairo: 1991-2020 normals, Helwan (21.9 km from centre). San Sebastian: 1991-2020 normals, San Sebastian / Igueldo (6.1 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Getting there

Flying fromCairoSan Sebastian
ParisCDG, ORY, BVA
4 h 25 m
€249-480
CAI · 17 km
1 h 30 m
€129-164
BIQ · 40 km
FrankfurtFRA, HHN
4 h 5 m
€245-328
1 stop
CAI · 17 km
2 h 0 m
no fares
BIO · 75 km
MilanMXP, BGY, LIN
3 h 45 m
€147-173
CAI · 17 km
1 h 50 m
€79-101
BIO · 75 km
AmsterdamAMS
4 h 30 m
no fares
CAI · 17 km
2 h 0 m
€196-210
1 stop
BIO · 75 km
MunichMUC
3 h 45 m
no fares
CAI · 17 km
2 h 10 m
€203-242
1 stop
BIO · 75 km
MadridMAD
4 h 35 m
€274-412
1 stop
CAI · 17 km
1 h 5 m
€76-169
EAS · 16 km
IstanbulIST, SAW
2 h 10 m
€154-167
CAI · 17 km
3 h 45 m
€192-214
BIO · 75 km
LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2
4 h 50 m
€240-288
CAI · 17 km
1 h 45 m
€126-289
1 stop
BIQ · 40 km
BarcelonaBCN
4 h 5 m
€267-335
CAI · 17 km
1 h 10 m
no fares
EAS · 16 km
New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA
11 h 15 m
€624-1013
1 stop
CAI · 17 km
7 h 20 m
no fares
BIO · 75 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 2026-10 to 2026-12, 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

MeasureCairoSan Sebastian
Official languageArabicSpanish
CurrencyEgyptian Pound (EGP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 122, ambulance 123, fire 180112
Elevation23 m6 m
Main airportCairo International Airport (CAI)17 km from centre127 non-stop destinationsSan Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCairoSan Sebastian
City population9,801,536189,866
People per km²18,5643,118
Museums within 10 km4814
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km23
Swim season, months above 21 °C-2 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cairo or San Sebastian somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Typical fares from Travelpayouts (Aviasales data). Route-level air passenger statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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 and flight figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-27. Typical prices can be up to 7 days old. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.